Eye on land

Nepali politicians, bureaucrats and business mafia have been using land to make illegal profits.

In a landmark verdict on Wednesday, the Supreme Court overturned the decision made by the erstwhile KP Sharma Oli government to allow the Jhapa-based Giri Bandhu Tea Estate to swap land exceeding the legal ownership ceiling in any place within Koshi Province. The top court said the decision contravened Section 12 (c) of the Land Act 1964. The Oli government had in January 2020 revised the Act, inducting a provision to swap the land or sell it to pay the company’s liabilities if it goes into liquidation.