A court has ordered the Housing Authority to pay €21,000 to a property owner after concluding that the owner's right to peaceful possession of his property had been violated.

Louis Apap Bologna filed his constitutional application before Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon in the First Hall of the Civil Court against Calcidon Ciantar, the authority and the Attorney General. The court ruled that the Attorney General was not a party to the suit.

The court heard that Mr Apap Bologna owned a property in Gzira and that it had been requisitioned in 1976 and allocated to a certain Peter Sheehan.

However, in 1987 Mr Apap Bologna discovered that Mr Ciantar was living in the property without title. The authority then requisitioned the property for a second time and allocated it to Mr Ciantar.

Mr Apap Bologna told the court that he had not been compensated for the deprivation of his property and that his fundamental human right to peaceful enjoyment of his property had been violated.

In its judgment, the court pointed out that Mr Ciantar was disabled and lived on social benefits and that the state was entitled to requisition property to fulfil its social functions. The requisition order had not therefore been capricious or unjustified.

However, the burden laid on Mr Apap Bologna was disproportionate and excessive for no fair balance had been struck between the needs of the community and the protection of the owner's human rights.

The court ruled that there were no grounds to overturn the requisition order and to order that the property revert to Mr Apap Bologna.

However, Mr Apap Bologna was entitled to compensation for the violation of his human rights.

The Housing Authority was ordered to pay Mr Apap Bologna €21,000 in compensation.