Archives

Land case: Court of Appeal quashes NHDA and GA's decision

by Kumar Wethasinghe

The Court of Appeal issued a writ of certiorari and writ of mandamus against National Housing Development Authority (NHDA), its senior district manager in Galle and Government Agent, Galle when it quashed the respondent's decision to cancel the allotments of three separate blocks of land given to petitioners in Wakunagoda Government Servants' Housing Scheme.

The Bench comprised Justices Shirani Tilakawardana and P. Wijeyaratne.

The order was sequel to three separate writ applications filed by Anil Ranjan Lamahewa, Chandra Kalyani de Silva and C. M. D. Dahanayake, all in the clerical grade in the Government Service in Galle district seeking to issue a writ of certiorari and a writ of mandamus in land allotment in Wakunagoda Government Servants' Housing Scheme.

The petitioner cited the NHDA W. Ranjith Wimaladarma de Silva, Senior District Manager of NHDA, Galle and Government Agent, Galle as the first, second and third respondents.

In their writ application, the petitioner stated that in October 1998, the Government Agent, Galle called for applications from the government servants in the district eligible for blocks of land to construct houses on hire purchase scheme through the NHDA from two proposed Government Servants' Housing Schemes at Wakunagoda and Pinnaduwa.

The petitioners were among others selected and requested to pay Rs. 6000 initial payment to obtain building blocks.

After accepting payments, the building blocks were chosen by drawing a lottery and NHDA officers accompanied the petitioners to the proposed Wakunagoda scheme.

The boundaries of their blocks were identified and handed over to them. The petitioner told Court that while they were preparing to construct houses, the Government Agent, Galle in August 2000 called for fresh application with new eligibility criteria for the same scheme.

The petitioners were informed that the earlier selection was cancelled due to protest and legal problems.

Counsel for petitioner U. Abdul Najeem submitted that the petitioner had a legitimate expectation to own their blocks of land, distributed after accepting of Rs. 6000 by adopting a transparent method of selection.

The cancellation ordered by the Government Agent, Galle violated the petitioners' rights to be heard.

He submitted that the government agent's decision to cancel these allotment was not a bona fide action and he had also failed to justify his reason before the Court of Appeal.

The court also issued a writ of mandamus directing the NHDA, its Senior District Manager, Galle and the Government Agent, Galle to allot blocks no 6, 15 and 27 to the petitioner in the Wakunagoda Government Servants' Housing Scheme.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager