MANGALURU: Puttur Assistant Commissioner’s Court has issued an order cancelling a grant of 7.59 acres of agricultural land in Dharmasthala of Dakshina Kannada district to D Harshendra Kumar, brother of Rajya Sabha MP and Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari D Veerendra Heggade.
The land was granted to Harshendra in 1972 under the Mysore Land Grant Rules,1969. In his affidavit filed then, Harshendra, who identified himself as ‘landless’ with an annual income of Rs 1,200, had claimed that he had no property of his own, either inherited or self-acquired, which made him eligible for land under the government’s provisions for the landless.
The land grant was challenged by K Somanath Nayak of Nagarika Seva Trust, Belthangady, in the Puttur Assistant Commissioner’s Court in 2015. In response, Harshendra filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court in which he reiterated that he had no land in his name, the AC court has no powers to enquire the matter as it is 50 years old (barred by limitation).
While disposing the writ petition in 2022, the HC said “The AC shall examine the specific defense of the petitioner that he was not a sufficient land holder and that he was entitled to seek the land.
The AC shall not, merely on the basis of the statement of objections filed before the court, assume that this court has affirmed the contents of the statement of objections.
The AC shall consider the matter independently on the basis of the materials produced by the petitioner and thereafter pass appropriate orders.”
In the AC Court, Nayak had requested to cancel the land grant citing a declaration made in 2012 by Veerendra Heggade stating that his undivided family (including Harshendra) previously owned 4,671.06 acres and after the Karnataka Land Reforms Act came into effect, they were entitled for 1,050.71 acres.