Kazakh man has land rights restored due to state body’s mistake

Tengrinews.kz – The Cassation Court for Civil Cases has overturned a decision to seize a land plot of more than 36 hectares from an entrepreneur. The reason was a procedural violation by a state body, citing the press service of the Cassation Court for Civil Cases.

The case concerns a 36.56-hectare plot allocated to an individual entrepreneur for agricultural production.

In February 2023, the Department for Land Resource Management conducted an unscheduled inspection and found that the land was not being used for its intended purpose. The entrepreneur was issued an order and given one year to eliminate the violation.

When that period expired, specialists inspected the plot again and drew up a report stating that the land was still not being used. After that, the department went to court seeking the forced seizure of the plot.

The courts of first and appellate instances sided with the state body and ruled to seize the land. However, the Cassation Court reached a different conclusion.

As the court explained, the Land Code provides for a specific procedure for the forced seizure of land. Before filing such a claim, the authorized body must apply the administrative penalties provided for by law.

Liability for the irrational use or non-use of agricultural land is provided for under Article 338 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. In other words, the man should have been fined or issued a warning. However, before the department went to court, the entrepreneur had not been held administratively liable.

Thus, a mandatory stage of the procedure was skipped.

The Cassation Court upheld the entrepreneur’s complaint, overturned the decisions of the first and appellate courts and restored his rights to the land plot.

The Cassation Court emphasized that the decision was connected specifically with a violation of the land seizure procedure, and not with a finding that the plot had been used for its intended purpose.

As a reminder, the Cassation Court for Civil Cases also recently overturned the decisions of the first and appellate courts in a dispute between an Almaty resident and a developer. The buyer sought compensation for a construction delay and ultimately won 10.5 million tenge in penalties.