Having reportedly evicted a group of 25 farmers from their land some years ago, the Corentyne, Berbice, John/Clifton Co-operative Land Society Limited has now itself been ordered by a Court to vacate and hand over portions of the land to the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
Among other things, High Court Judge Fidela Corbin Lincoln has ordered the co-op to in no way interfere with NICIL’s rights and enjoyment to the property.
In a ruling handed down just over a month ago, the Society was ordered to surrender to the NICIL some 315 acres of Plantation Clifton and John located on the Corentyne.
The Judge has further ordered the co-op society that their servants and/or agents are also “restrained from entering, occupying encumbering, or in any other way encroaching and/or interfering” with NICIL’s “right, use, enjoyment, occupation and/or possession” of the land.
NICIL (the Applicant) was awarded damages and court costs which together amounted to $315,000.
Each of the nine respondents, who are the members of the Co-op, was ordered to pay damages in the sum of $10,000 and court costs in the sum of $25,000.
The Co-op Society members listed as Respondents were: Kalamodian Haniff; Asheem Ali–Chairman; Mohamed Ali Khan–Assistant Secretary/Treasurer; Chandradatt Ramotar–Treasurer; Azeez Ali Khan-Committee Member; Dianand Jhando–Committee Member; Dularie Kunjbehari; Syjit Kumar Ramotar; and Lekhram Jagit.
They were represented by Senior Counsel Mursaline Bacchus and attorney Chandra Sohan, who this newspaper understands had raised a claim of proprietary estoppel which the Court dismissed.
The land at the centre of the litigation was formerly vested in the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
Pursuant to Act No. 45 of 2017 (Transfer of Property) Order, however, all properties under the control of GuySuCo were vested to NICIL.
Arguing that in accordance with that Order, the NICIL was in charge of all those lands, its attorney, Deena Panday, filed the action seeking possession.
The Court in its ruling ordered the Respondents to have vacated the land no later than this past Monday, September 19, 2022.
Back in 2018, a group of 25 farmers moved to the High Court seeking damages in excess of $48 million for losses and the destruction of property, which they said they suffered when according to them, the very John/Clifton Co-Operative Land Society Limited forcefully and unlawfully evicted them from their land.
The farmers, who had described themselves in their affidavits as former members of the Co-op Society and residents who farm at Plantation Clifton and John, had said that the Co-op Society forced them out although they owned transports for their lands.
They said that after a 10-year lease between the Co-op Society and the Port Mourant Company for 350 acres of land expired in 1975, the Society’s members never applied for new leases, though they continued to live, cultivate and rear animals there.
In court documents seen by this newspaper back in 2018, the farmers had said that sometime after the country gained independence in 1966, the land was transferred to GuySuCo.
They said members of the Society subsequently approached Government and the Central Housing and Planning Authority with a view of acquiring title to the lands, while noting that a process was established by which portions of land were allotted to some of the residents, after which they obtained transport in their names.
Apart from this, they said that some of the residents owned shares in the Co-op Society, which allowed for them to occupy portions of the said land under that agreement, while noting that though tracts of land situated behind each dwelling house were not allocated by transport, they were communally occupied by members who continued to plant rice as well as other crops, along with rearing livestock and cattle.
According to court documents, over the years the John/Clifton Co-operative Society became defunct and after 2012, its members stopped having meetings and they ceased to function as a society until its resuscitation in 2017.
The farmers had said that at that time, the lands changed ownership from GuySuCo to NICIL, which according to them, erroneously included portions of land for which some of them were issued transport and upon which their dwelling houses were located.
The resuscitation move, they said, was done by the Department of Co-operatives of the Ministry of Social Protection and a general meeting was held without their knowledge.
The farmers had said that almost immediately after the resuscitation, the newly constituted Co-op Society entered their lands “armed with weapons and forcefully evicted persons,” precluding them from farming the lands.
They had complained that the members of the Co-op were at the time harvesting their rice and other crops and had begun planting on their lands.
The farmers had explained in their affidavits that on March 1 of 2018, NICIL entered an agreement with the newly constituted Co-operative Limited for a term of five years for lease of lands, which included theirs.
As a result, they argued that large portions of the leased land were erroneously and illegally leased, in breach of their fundamental rights.
In a breakdown of their expenditure at the time, the farmers had pegged destruction, damage and loss of profits derived from planting rice at $39,000,000; the destruction of cash crops at $1,300,000; the destruction of fencing at $1,800,000; and the destruction of a chicken farm at $6,000,000.
The expenditure amounted to a total of $48,100,000.
Stabroek News understands that there had been a court ruling quashing the decision to resuscitate the Co-Op Society, and though there were several legal proceedings challenging that decision, there was never any appeal and so the ruling stood.
NICIL then last year filed the action to have the Co-Op Society removed from the land.
