AJK HC dismisses plea against graveyard land mutation

The High Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday dismissed in limine a writ petition challenging the mutation of land reserved for a graveyard in Muzaffarabad’s Chehla Bandi area. 

In a detailed judgment, Acting Chief Justice Syed Shahid Bahar rejected the petition filed by Naseer Ahmed, observing that the matter had already been settled up to the apex court and could not be reopened through fresh litigation. 

The petitioner had sought to set aside Mutation No.1169 dated Jan 22, 2026, as well as an order issued by the commissioner of Muzaffarabad division on April 16, 2026. He had also requested the court to restrain authorities from dispossessing him from land bearing survey Nos 561 and 562 and allow him to deposit its market value under government notifications issued in 2024 and 2025. 

However, the court held that the dispute had already been adjudicated in an earlier writ petition filed by the same petitioner in 2016 against a July 10, 2014 notification reserving the land for a graveyard. 

That petition was dismissed by the high court in December 2020, while a subsequent civil petition for leave to appeal was also rejected by the AJK Supreme Court in March 2022. 

The judgment noted that despite those verdicts, the petitioner again approached the courts this year with “almost similar prayer based on similar facts and grounds”. 

“It is very astonishing that the instant writ petition has again been filed by the petitioner to get a similar relief from this court despite the clear-cut verdict of the Apex Court as well as this Court,” the acting chief justice observed. 

The court ruled that the principle of res judicata applied to the case, stressing that disputes once decided must attain finality. 

The judgment further observed that disputed questions of fact could not be resolved in constitutional jurisdiction without recording evidence, and noted that the inhabitants of Chehla Bandi — beneficiaries of the graveyard land — had not been made parties to the petition. 

Referring to earlier precedents, the court observed that graveyards, parks and other public-use properties could neither be allotted nor converted for private commercial or residential purposes. 

The acting chief justice termed the petitioner’s attempt to change the use of the graveyard land an unlawful act and directed civic authorities to proceed against those responsible for any illegal transfer of public property. 

The court also imposed a special cost of Rs25,000 on the petitioner, directing him to deposit the amount with the Kashmir Orphan Relief Trust within 10 days and submit the receipt to the registrar of the court, warning that “serious action” would follow in case of non-compliance.

Tariq Naqash