Supreme Court backs water body land cancellation, aids flat owners
India's top court upholds cancellation of land rights over a Tamil Nadu water body but orders the state to find alternative housing for 20 flat owners before demolition.
In brief
India's top court upholds cancellation of land rights over a Tamil Nadu water body but orders the state to find alternative housing for 20 flat owners before demolition. The Supreme Court upheld cancellation of land rights granted over a government water body in Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu, but directed the state…
Court upholds patta cancellation
The Supreme Court has upheld cancellation of a ryotwari patta granted over land recorded as a government water body in Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu.
What is a ryotwari patta
A ryotwari patta is an official revenue document and land record issued to an individual cultivator, certifying their right to occupy and cultivate a specific piece of land while paying land tax directly to the…
Bench orders alternative site for flat owners
A Bench of Justices S.V.N. Bhatti and N.V. Anjaria directed the Tamil Nadu government to allot a suitable alternative site to the owners of twenty flats before demolishing their apartments.
Justice Bhatti on hardship concerns
Justice Bhatti said directing demolition without examining hardship would cause irreparable financial injury and throw families on the streets, given the flat owners had been made to believe the government had no interest in the…
“directing the demolition of flats without examining the hardship of the flat owners and the independent remedies available to them in law against the owner of the land and the developer of the apartments would cause irreparable financial injury and throw the families on the streets”
Six month deadline for alternative site
The Bench directed the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu and the District Collector, Tiruvallur, to allot a vacant, commensurate site to the flat owners preferably within six months from the judgment date.
Land history and disputed patta
The land at Thirumullaivoyal village was originally recorded in the nineteen eleven resettlement register as Government Poramboke.The District Revenue Officer granted a ryotwari patta for zero point seventy two acres to P.
Bank credit against mortgaged land
The land was used for property transactions and construction of twenty residential flats. Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank extended credit facilities of three crore forty lakh rupees against a mortgage created over the land.
Patta set aside in two thousand nineteen
In December two thousand nineteen, the Commissioner of Land Administration set aside the patta, holding it had been granted in violation of applicable legal provisions.
Court rejects appellants' challenge
The Supreme Court observed that earliest revenue records classified the land as a tank and government poramboke, not ryoti land eligible for a patta.
Here's the gist
The Supreme Court upheld cancellation of land rights granted over a government water body in Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu, but directed the state to provide alternative sites to twenty flat owners within six months before demolishing their apartments.
