Kazakhstan's Cassation Court for Civil Cases has invalidated a 2022 land sale and purchase agreement and overturned an unlawful change to the plot's designated purpose. The proceedings revealed that a clinic was supposed to be built on the site of a commercial premises under the general plan, infohub.kz reports.
Officials had to go to court against a Kazakh citizen and take the case all the way to the cassation instance to return the plot to the state.
The main problem was that the land had been handed over for commercial use in violation of the general plan. Case materials showed that a Category III road runs through the disputed territory. It existed before the settlement's general plan was approved and is officially included in it.
Under the general plan, the plot itself is reserved for the construction of a medical clinic. Despite this, in 2022 the akim of the rural district issued a decision changing the land's designated purpose to "for entrepreneurial activity."
Under Article 109 of the Land Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, all lands of populated areas must be used strictly in accordance with the general plan and functional zoning. These rules cannot be changed to suit anyone's interests.
In the end, the Cassation Court fully overturned the rulings of the lower instances and decided to grant the department's claims, declaring the land sale and purchase agreement invalid. The land was returned to the state.
Earlier in Almaty, 649 land plots under billboards were returned to the state. As the prosecutor's office found, from 2004 to 2020 the akimat transferred this land into private ownership without auctions.