Supreme Court rules Aqua Garden land grant inside Dund River protection zone was partly unlawful

Mongolia's Supreme Court on November 11 heard, at the supervisory level, the land dispute over the Aqua Garden housing complex and found that the relevant part of a 2022 Ulaanbaatar governor's decision granting land overlapping the Dund River special protection zone was unlawful. The claim over the complex, which many people online call the "corruption complex", was brought by the NGO Onch Shiidel.

What the court decided

According to UBN.mn, the court reviewed the case, brought against the Ulaanbaatar governor, the Ministry of Urban Development, Construction and Housing, the city's chief architect, who also heads the urban development and standards agency, and the Construction Development Center, on appeals from the claimant's representative and lawyer, the defendants' representative and a third party's lawyer.

The supervisory court amended the appeals court ruling to grant the claim that the overlap between the remaining land parcel of M and G Construction LLC, covered by the governor's 2022 decision A/17, and the Dund River special protection zone was unlawful, and left the rest of the appeals ruling unchanged.

The court also found that parts of the governor's 2018 decision A/1111, which changed the size and purpose of 11.8 hectares granted in 2013 "for green space" to services, a water park and a sports complex, violated Article 22.2 of the Law on Water.

Earlier rulings

The court of first instance had dismissed all of Onch Shiidel's claims. The administrative appeals court then annulled the overlap with the protection zone for two of the three parcels, suspended the city chief architect's 2022 planning assignment for six months until a new act is issued, and dismissed the claim regarding the remaining parcel. Time.mn reported in May that the Supreme Court had accepted an appeal by M and G Construction LLC for review at the supervisory level.

Reaction on X

After the ruling, users on X thanked the young people of Onch Shiidel. B. Tsogtgerel wrote from the @TsogtgerelB account that it is now possible to demolish buildings put up without permits in the river protection zone. At the time of writing, neither the city government nor any other authority had made an official statement on what will happen to the buildings.