MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently directed the Registry of the court to inform district collectors of all districts in the state to comply with the guidelines issued by the court while dealing with online patta applications. The court told the collectors to instruct their respective revenue officials to strictly comply with the guidelines.
Justice PB Balaji gave the direction while setting aside an order passed by the Rajapalayam tahsildar rejecting the online patta application of a woman, M Gomathi, on March 4, without stating reasons for rejection.
Gomathi also claimed that she was not afforded an opportunity to submit documents relating to her application. However, the government counsel explained that only the final result of the application would be made available in the website and the aggrieved party can approach the authority concerned to get the detailed order.
The judge noted that in a similar case recently, the court had imposed certain guidelines which included that the authorities should not reject an application merely for want of documents. If any clarification is required, the authorities should provide sufficient opportunity to the applicants to clarify it. The court had further added that if an application needs to be rejected, the authorities should pass speaking orders citing the reasons for rejection.
Despite the issuance of detailed guidelines, the authorities continue to follow the earlier practice of rejecting the request without affording an opportunity to the petitioner concerned, the judge observed and passed the above order.