Gulu secondary school and Indians reach an out-of-court settlement over a land dispute.

BAPS Charities Uganda, the umbrella organization of registered trustees of Indian temples, handed off two pieces of property to Gulu Senior Secondary School on Sunday.

The two plots, at 500 million shillings each, are in Gulu city’s Bardege-Layibi sector and were split from an acre of land that the Indian Hindu sect bought in 1963 to erect a temple.

When Asians were expelled from Uganda in 1972, the registered board of trustees of BAPS were forced to leave the land due to directives from then-President Idi Amin Dada’s government.

Gulu Secondary School took the chance after the Asians evacuated the area, according to Irene Mwaka, the school’s headteacher.

When the Indians returned, they were denied entry to the property and were denied repossession on the grounds that the site was being used for the public good in the shape of a secondary school educating Ugandan children.

The school was expected to evacuate BAPS premises in 2010, but it has yet to do so. The Indians chose to seek recourse through the courts, and they sued the institution in September 2011.

Both parties consented to join mediation after the then-Gulu Resident Judge Simon Byamukama Mugenyi urged them to do so in 2012.

According to Alfred Kyaka, an Assistant Commissioner in-charge of Government Secondary Education, the Ministry of Education and Sports paid BAPS 638 million shillings in rent arrears that had accumulated for 27 years as part of the mediation process’ criteria.

The Chairperson of BAPS in Uganda, Patel Ghanshyam, stated that they agreed to settle the dispute outside of court and gave the land in question to promote education in the region.

Denis Hamson Obua, the State Minister of Education and Sports, praised both parties for reaching an out-of-court settlement.