M S CHERIAN Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution has been instituted by way of Public Interest Litigation on account of eviction of a large number of agriculturists from the lands in their possession in the context of the Tamil Nadu Gudalur Janmam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as the Janmam Estates Act). The constitutional validity of S. 9 (1) and S. 17 of the Act has been challenged in the course of the Writ Petition. So also the constitutionality of the Tamil Nadu Forest (Amendment) Act, 1981 hereinafter referred to as the Forest Act) has been challenged by the petitioners. The constitutionality of the Forest Act has been challenged by reason of the fact that eviction of some of the petitioners from the lands in question was effected by recourse to the procedure embodied in the said Act.

(2.) So far as the Janmam Estates Act is concerned, the constitutional validity of all the provisions of the Act barring S. 3 thereof in so far as it relates to the forests in the Janmam Estates has been upheld by this court, in BALMADIES plantations and ANOTHER VS. STATE OF TAMIL NADU (1973 (1) SCR 258). The petitioners cannot therefore successfully assail the Janmam Estate Act. Besides the said Act has now earned immunity on being included in the IX th Schedule in 1974. So far as the constitutional validity of the Forest Act is concerned it is unnecessary to examine the same as the eviction of the concerned petitioners took place in 1981 and no useful purpose will be served by digging up the past, particularly because the evicted petitioners can succeed on merits only provided they establish their title to the lands in question under law. In our opinion the grievances made by the petitioners can be satisfactorily resolved by issuing directions in the following terms:

(3.) We are given to understand by the petitioners that most of the petitioners have their houses nearby the lands in question and most of them are or were in possession only of small parcels of the land admeasuring half an acre to two acres. Their cases deserve to be sympathetically considered having regard to the proximity of their houses and the history of their past possession. The State government and the concerned Competent Authority, we trust, will make a sympathetic approach and grant them pattas on compassionate grounds, if possible, without violating any provisions of any statute or any scheme for resettlement already framed by the State government. As observed earlier a new settlement may be framed is possible. In view of these observations, the learned counsel for the petitioner withdraws the Writ Petition. The Writ Petition will stand disposed of accordingly. There will be no order regarding costs.