THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The revenue department has decided to issue land records to thousands of landholders under the Malabar Land Registration Act of 1895.
The department has got a nod from the legal department to issue land records to thousands of landholders holding unassessed land in the north Malabar districts of Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, and Kannur.
The revenue offices in these districts will now issue the land records thereby helping the landholders to pay basic land tax and become the owners of the land by registering it in their names. The move will also make it possible to mutate the lands in the sub-registrar offices.
Until now the revenue officials declined to accept the land tax as these lands were included in the criteria of unassessed land.
These lands were previously considered unassessed due to being distributed by landlords in the royal and British eras when they were uncultivable.
After independence, the revenue officials refused to receive the basic land tax.
In 2005 to solve the land issue the then government issued an ordinance to repeal the age-old law. However, the government failed to re-promulgate the ordinance.
The situation worsened in 2015 when the single bench of the Kerala High Court ordered that as the act was dissolved through the ordinance the Malabar Land Registration Act would cease to exist. After a legal battle, the division bench recently ordered that even if re-promulgation was not done the parent law will exist.
The revenue minister K Rajan had sought legal advice since the landholders were distressed by the endless legal battle they were forced to wage.
The decision, which comes after years of uncertainty, will provide relief to those who have been entangled in legal battles for years to obtain land rights for the lands they are holding.
The New Indian Express was the first to report on the plight of landholders.