THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The revenue department has, at last, found a solution to a long-standing land issue — regularisation of land bought from persons belonging to scheduled tribes.
According to ‘The Kerala Restriction on Transfer by and Restoration of Lands to Scheduled Tribes Act’ of 1999, any transfer of land owned by a person from a scheduled tribe to those outside the community without the written consent of the competent authority shall be invalid.
The law was put into effect retrospectively, from January 1, 1960. The enactment of the law put many non-tribal persons who bought land from tribal persons in districts like Palakkad, Idukki and Wayanad in a sticky situation. The revenue and registration authorities declined to do the mutation and transfer of ownership of the land. On each ‘pattaya mela’, thousands approached revenue officials to find a legal solution.
The revenue department officials have been informing the government that since the law does not permit the regularisation of the sale of tribal land, a solution to the matter is impossible. After the second Pinarayi Vijayan government came to power, the department took up the issue and asked all officials to find a legal solution.
After closer verification of an Act passed in 1993, it was found that Section 5 of the law provides a solution. It says if any transfer of land possessed, enjoyed or owned by a member of a scheduled tribe to a person other than ST does not exceed two hectares (five acres), that transfer shall be valid.
The department has asked officials to take the action necessary to regularise the land in the ongoing ‘pattaya assemblies’. “The pattaya assemblies have turned out to be a huge success as 2,000 pattaya issues are being solved in one district alone,” a revenue official told TNIE.
“By solving the issue of ST land alienation, a major revenue issue has been solved.”
The department has also decided to regularise forest land which had been occupied before January 1, 1977. The revenue and forest officials were of the stand that the forest land occupied even before January 1977 should be regularised with the permission of the Union government. however, according to ‘The Kerala Land Assignment (Regularisation of Occupations of Forest Land Prior to 1-1-1977) Special Rules, 1993’, the land under these rules may be assigned for registry purposes of personal cultivation or for residential or commercial sites, as the case may be.
According to statistics with the revenue department, a thousand families face the issue. While it has sought legal opinion on the matter, the department is also of the view that, if necessary, a separate order will be issued.