A woman yesterday filed a constitutional application in the First Hall of the Civil Court claiming that her human rights had been violated by the expropriation of her property at Marsa.
Inez Calleja filed her application against the Commissioner of Lands, the Malta Transport Authority and the Attorney General.
Ms Calleja told the court that in 1973 the authorities had constructed December 13th Street in Marsa on land belonging to her.
However, to date, no action had been taken by the authorities to compensate her for the land which measured over 1,800 square metres.
In 1975 the authorities had taken over more than 900 square metres of land belonging to Ms Calleja in order to construct Racecourse Street. Once again, no steps had been taken to compensate Ms Calleja for her loss, and the government had not even published an official declaration to this end in the government gazette.
To date the authorities had not taken any action to establish the fair price and compensation for these two portions of land.
Ms Calleja told the court that the law governing expropriation was amended last year to establish the price of land that was in the course of being expropriated up to January 1, 2005. In such cases, even if no notice to treat had been issued by such date, the value of the land was deemed to be that as at January 1, 2005.
The amendment also established that rather than paying damages for the occupation of land, the owner would be entitled to interest at the rate of five per cent on the price indicated in the notice to treat, and not on the actual value of the property. This could possibly expose Ms Calleja to paying income tax on such interest.
Ms Calleja added that if these provisions of the law were applied to her case, her fundamental human rights would be violated for she would not receive adequate compensation for the loss of her land. At the moment of the acquisition of the property, the authorities would not be paying her the real value of the property, nor would they be paying her suitable compensation for the occupation of the property over these years.
Ms Calleja added that she was also being deprived of her right to access to the court to establish the amount of compensation that was due to her.
In conclusion Ms Calleja called upon the authorities to pay her adequate and fair compensation for her land and to make good the damages she had suffered for the occupation of her property.
She also requested the court to establish a time limit within which the authorities had to complete the procedures for the expropriation of her land. Ms Calleja also requested payment of moral damages.
Lawyer Peter Borg Costanzi acted for Ms Calleja.