MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently issued notice to the Tiruchy collector and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking direction to declare a patta issued in favour of BHEL in respect of a land in Navalpattu village in Tiruchy as null and void on the ground that a portion of the land was classified as waterbody.
The litigant KM Karthik, an insurance agent from Tiruchy, alleged in his petition that 392 acres of government lands in the above village in Thiruverumbur taluk, were protected by BHEL in 2010 by constructing compound walls and creating checkposts, thereby restricting access to the villagers, who were using it for grazing cattle. The land also included a village temple, well, water channel, ponds, among others, he added.
The villagers were unaware of the reason for denial of access for several years, until recently when they came across the online patta for the land, which revealed that the Thiruverumbur tahsildar and revenue divisional officer had passed certain orders in 2015 and 2020 respectively, transferring the above lands in the name of BHEL, Karthik claimed.
Citing that the land also included Kudukudupai pond and water channel and also the fact that it belonged to the revenue authorities, the petitioner stated that the patta granted in favour of BHEL was illegal.
A special bench of justices GR Swaminathan and B Pugalendhi, which deals with waterbody related case, issued notice to the authorities concerned and adjourned the case to February 26.