CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has rejected a plea from Chettinad Cement Corporation Limited to assign 46.92 acres of poromboke/waste land at Alambadi and Kottanatham villages in Vedasandur in Dindigul district.
Justice K Kalyanasundaram, who rejected the plea, also upheld a levy of `73.44 lakh along with interest at the rate of nine per cent within two weeks, towards lease amount.
The judge was dismissing a petition from Chettinad Cements seeking to quash the proceedings of Vedasandur Tahsildar dated March 14, 2007 and to direct the district administration to issue assignment order for 46.92 acres. Petitioner claimed that the land measuring 47.47-1/2 acres in the villages had been classified as poromboke and was under its occupation and enjoyment since 1965. The petitioner company had been paying the ‘B’ memo charges promptly.
While so, by a communication dated January 31, 1983, the tahsildar requested the petitioner to take up the land on lease or on assignment. Though the petitioner had immediately responded giving consent for assignment of land on payment of double market value, the tahsildar in 1988 returned the proposal and asked to submit a fresh proposal for lease. But the petitioner insisted for assignment of land and it was not interested in getting lease of the land. Finally on March 14, 2007, the impugned order was issued, directing the petitioner to pay `73.44 lakh as lease amount from 1971 to 2007.
Hence, the present writ petition. Additional Advocate-General A Kumar said the petitioner was an encroacher on the land in question for over three decades from 1971 to 2007 and even now the firm is illegally occupying the land.