CHENNAI: In a judgment that could have wider ramifications, the Madras High Court on Wednesday ruled that grama natham land becomes private property of an occupant if it is occupied for a reasonably long time and such occupation was recognised by the state by way of successive transfers of the particular land.
Importantly, the court said that tahsildars need not reject the application for issuance of patta only on the grounds that the land is classified as grama natham or by citing the ceiling limits (of 3 cents) in Revenue Standing Order, since those limits relate only to “unoccupied” grama natham land and “not occupied” land.
The judge directed the revenue authorities to consider the applications of the petitioner and issue them patta after ascertaining they have been in occupation for a fairly long time. Justice N Anand Venkatesh issued the ruling while disposing a batch of petitions filed by different persons from Krishnagiri, Tiruppur and Tiruvannamalai districts, seeking orders to the revenue department to issue patta for the grama natham land under their occupation for a long time.
“Where the grama natham land is occupied and such occupation has been recognised by the state by way of successive transfers etc, the land is the private property of the occupant. Such lands cannot be regarded as government property nor can they be regarded as encroachments by virtue of the exception contained in Section 2 of the Act,” the judge said in the order, while elaborately discussing previous differing judgments of the court on the issue.
The state government pleader A Edwin Prabhakar had submitted that ‘grama natham’ does not find a place under Section 2 of the Land Encroachment Act, 1905 and therefore those lands are declared to be government properties since 1905.
The judge held that grama natham land cannot be reclassified if it is under occupation as the state cannot deprive the rights acquired by the occupant. However, the judge ruled that if the land is unoccupied, the paramount title (rights) to these lands would vest with the state and, in cases, where grama natham land is occupied temporarily or recently occupied and there is no evidence of any recognition by the state of such occupation, it will be considered unoccupied land.
Persons in unauthorised occupation or encroachers of unoccupied grama natham may be evicted through the mechanism of the Land Encroachment Act, 1905. He directed the commissioner of land administration to issue a circular in line with the conclusions of the present order as a 2015 circular by the then additional commissioner of land administration was quashed by a division bench order.