Overview
- The Federal Constitutional Court held that landowners who accepted the Collector’s Award or failed to seek a statutory reference under Section 18 cannot later claim the benefit of enhanced compensation awarded to others.
- The three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan issued a 45-page judgment that set aside earlier Peshawar High Court, Lahore High Court and Supreme Court decisions that had extended extra awards to non‑objecting owners.
- The court said the Act is a self-contained statutory scheme and judges cannot create a right to share enhancements won in separate reference proceedings.
- Justice Syed Arshad Hussain Shah added a note clarifying that any additional sums already paid to landowners will not be recovered by the state.
- Separately, the FCC criticised repeated adjournment requests by lawyers and ordered fines for delays to curb backlog, signaling a drive to speed up case disposal.