The Lahore High Court (LHC) Tuesday declared Ravi Urban Development Project unconstitutional and directed the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) to return the project money to the Punjab government.
In his decision, which was reserved on Dec 21 last year, Justice Shahid Karim said RUDA had failed to prepare a master plan in accordance with the law. he said any scheme without a master plan was contrary to the Constitution. Justice Shahid said Section 4 of the RUDA Amendment Ordinance violated Article 144 and the ordinance itself was unconstitutional.
The judge said an agricultural land could only be acquired when a proper legal mechanism was in place. In the previous hearing after which the judgment was reserved, the petitioners’ counsel had said that Sections 29-31 of the RUDA Act pertaining to the land acquisition were contrary to Article 24 of the Constitution. He said there was no comparison between the RUDA and the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), says a news report.
LDA counsel Waqar A Sheikh argued that the LDA chairperson was the chief minister of Punjab.
“The LDA board also comprises public representatives but public representation has been ignored in RUDA,” he added.
The powers of the public representatives have been given to unelected representatives in RUDA, the counsel said, adding that RUDA Act was against the democratic principles. RUDA ‘s counsel apprised the court that the provincial assembly had passed the RUDA budget and that all requirements were met before the project started.
