Pokhara, July 15

The Pokhara Appellate Court has upheld Kaski District Court’s verdict in a case relating to land dispute, confirming that the 63 ropanis of land in Tundikhel and the adjoining areas in Pokhara sub-metropolis-1 is public property.

Hearing the seven decade-old case, the appellate court recently passed the verdict saying the 37 ropanis and 14 annas of plot number 591, and another 25 ropanis and one anna of plot number 338 in Pokhara submetropolis-1 were public property.

A joint bench of judges Dambar Bahadur Shahi and Bhim Kumar Ojha at the appellate court made the ruling.

Despite written proof that says the land plots were appropriated for public use by the local Parajuli families about seven decades ago, the issue remained unresolved.

Gopalbhushan Parajuli, a local, had moved the Supreme Court demanding that the land be registered in his name about a decade ago. However, despite the apex court’s verdict in his favour, a ruling from the Kaski district court overruled the apex court’s verdict.

The district court on December 5 last year had issued its verdict in the case, identifying the land as public property.

Meanwhile, the appellate court’s decision to uphold the district court’s verdict has elated the locals. “The verdict is in favour of the entire community,” said the civil society executive chairperson Maya Gurung of Pokhara-1.

Shining Hospital was set up in plot no 591 in 2010 BS,

but the hospital was later merged into Western Regional Hospital in 2045 BS. Plot number 338 is now an area of Tundikhel.