In the Baiganin district of Aktobe region, a plot of land that a farmer had been trying to register as his property since 2015 was given by the local akimat to another female villager in 2023. Since then, officials have repeated this decision several times – even after the courts ruled it unlawful.
HOW THE DISPUTE BEGAN
According to court documents obtained by the editorial board of FBRK, the head of the agricultural enterprise «Elbrus», Khamit Zhumabayev, back in 2015, applied to the akim of the Karauylkeldin rural district asking for a plot of land measuring 0.25 hectares to be allocated to him for agricultural buildings in the «Tolegen» area. In 2016, the district land commission issued a positive recommendation on his application, but the akimat never made a final decision at that time.
The application remained «in limbo» for several years.
LAND GIVEN TO SOMEONE ELSE
At the end of 2023, the same plot was requested by a female villager, Zh. Dusipova. The district land commission – in the same composition that had previously approved Zhumabayev's application – also approved her request. In February 2024, the akim of the district, by his order, gave the plot to Dusipova on a three-year lease.
Zhumabayev lodged a complaint with the prosecutor's office. In the summer of 2024, the prosecutor's office filed a protest, and the akim himself cancelled his own order. However, the Prosecutor General's Office later intervened, the protest was withdrawn, and in autumn 2024 the akim reinstated his earlier decision – the plot remained with Dusipova.
While the farmer was in court seeking to restore the missed deadline for filing his lawsuit, in the summer of 2025 the akimat went even further: the plot was transferred to Dusipova not on lease but into private ownership.
WHAT THE COURTS DECIDED
The case reached the court of first instance. In October 2025, the court partially upheld the farmer's claim: the decision to transfer the land into Dusipova's private ownership was ruled unlawful. However, the court refused the farmer the other part of the claim – to annul the earlier decision transferring the plot to her on lease.
In March 2026, the appellate instance left this decision unchanged. The farmer's lawyers have now filed a cassation appeal – asking for the refusal on the remaining part of the claim to be overturned.
The farmer's arguments are that the commission's positive recommendation on his 2016 application was formally never revoked, that the agricultural plot was transferred to the new applicant without the mandatory tender, and that the akimat's order itself did not specify the intended use of the land, as required by law.
LAND CHANGED HANDS AGAIN
Despite the court ruling that the transfer of the plot into private ownership was unlawful, in the summer of 2026 the district akimat, by a new decision – this time on different grounds – once again registered the same plot into private ownership in Dusipova's name. The farmer is contesting this decision too with a separate lawsuit, which is currently also pending before the court.
WHY THIS MATTERS
This story shows how the same land plot repeatedly passed from one applicant to another through decisions of the local akimat, even though some of those decisions were subsequently ruled unlawful by the court.
The key moment in the dispute right now is the farmer's cassation appeal, which has yet to be considered by the cassation instance court. It is this decision that will determine whether the plot returns to Zhumabayev's control or whether the dispute continues further.
