–dismisses $200M claim, proves PNC/APNU misled squatters

REAFFIRMING the State’s authority over public lands, Chief Justice Roxane George on Friday dismissed legal challenges filed by six Mocha Arcadia squatters who refused to relocate despite multiple government efforts to provide alternative housing.

According to a release issued by the Attorney-General Chambers, the decision brings finality to a prolonged legal battle in which the squatters, who had occupied lands earmarked for national infrastructure development, sought to claim prescriptive rights while demanding over $200 million in damages from the State.

The decision exposes how the People’s National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity (PNC/R-APNU) opposition misled the squatters, encouraging them to resist relocation efforts despite clear government directives and assistance.

As such, the Court found that the squatters had “no rights, interests or title to the lands at Block ‘X’ Plantation Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, an area through which the four-lane Heroes Highway now runs.

The government had previously engaged the residents and issued relocation notices, yet these six individuals remained in defiance, ultimately positioning themselves as “trespassers”.
The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) made repeated efforts to regularise the situation, notifying the affected individuals that the lands could not be retained for residential purposes due to the highway project.

More than 150 squatters accepted the government’s assistance, including offers of legal house lots, but the six claimants resisted, resulting in the court battle which was filed in September 2023.
The resistant squatters were offered compensation ranging from $3.4 million to $14.3 million, but continued to demand as much as $150 million each to remove.
The Chief Justice ruled that the applicants failed to provide any evidence proving their entitlement to the lands before the passage of the Title to Land (Prescription and Limitation) Amendment Act of 2011.

Additionally, their claims of constitutional breaches, citing protection from inhumane treatment, deprivation of property, and arbitrary entry, were deemed unsubstantiated.

LANDMARK RULING
The AG’s release also said that the “landmark judgement” also sets precedent in addressing illegal squatting on State lands, and highlights the court’s stance on individuals who attempt to obstruct critical national development projects.

“In this regard, the Honourable Chief Justice, in her Ruling, emphasised that this case has implications for how persons who occupy parapets and reserves which belong to the Government or are managed by Local Authorities are to be dealt with,” the release said.

The opposition’s involvement in misleading the squatters became even more apparent when PNC/APNU Member of Parliament Nima Flue-Bess provided evidence in support of their case; evidence that the court ultimately dismissed as lacking specificity and relevance.

Further, the Chief Justice pointed out contradictions in the squatters’ arguments, pointing out that while they claimed the CH&PA had no control over the lands, they had initially approached the agency seeking regularisation.

The applicants also wrongly named the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) in their lawsuit, despite the company having no legal claim to the lands since 2017.
With the failure of their case, the squatters have been ordered to pay significant legal costs to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the CH&PA, and GuySuCo by June 3, 2025.

The Attorney-General, Anil Nandlall, SC, led the legal team representing the State, alongside Deputy Solicitor-General Shoshanna V. Lall and other government attorneys. The CH&PA was represented by attorneys Darshan Ramdhani, KC, and Arudranauth Gossai, while GuySuCo’s legal team included Kamal Ramkarran and Senior Counsel Rafiq Khan.
The judgment also reinforces the State’s position that public infrastructure projects, such as the Heroes Highway, must proceed unimpeded in the national interest.

Authorities had long maintained that the squatters’ refusal to relocate was an unnecessary delay to a transformative project designed to improve connectivity and boost economic development.
Government had implored the Mocha squatters to stop being used as political tools and pawns, and see reason in the benefit of moving from the government reserve to the legal, legitimate lands and houses being offered by the government.

On January 5, 2023, the situation became intense when officials from the Ministry of Housing and Water, along with police officers in riot gear came under attack.
They were pelted with molotov cocktails, stones and other implements as they resumed demolition of the structures on the government reserve.