P.K.MEETHYANKUTTY Vs. VILLAGE OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition is filed seeking for a direction to the respondents to change the entries in the Basic Tax Register and the Revenue Register with respect to the properties, owned by the petitioners, shown as nilam to purayidom.

(2.) THE petitioners 1 to 3 claim to be the owners of the property having an extent of 0.2377 hectare of dry land under T.P.No.21532 comprising in Sy.No.87/1 of Kulasekharamangalam Village as evidenced by Tax receipt dated 22.04.2014. The 2nd petitioner claims to be the owner of the property having an extent of 0.1861 hectare of dry land described as wet land in Village records vide T.P.No.16774, comprising in Sy.Nos.108/1A - 32 and 108/1B -33 as evidenced by Tax receipt dated 22.04.2014. The petitioners 1, 4 and 6 claim to be the owners of the property having an extent of 0.5432 hectare of dry land described as wet land in Village records under T.P.No.21020 comprising in Sy.No.87/1 of Kulasekharamangalam Village. The 3rd petitioner claims to be the owner of the property having an extent of 0.2199 hectare of dry land under T.P.No.16743 comprising in Sy.Nos.108/16A, 108/1A and 108/1B of Kulasekharamangalam Village as evidenced by land tax receipt dated 22.04.2014. The 1st petitioner claims to be the owner of the property having an extent of 0.2144 hectare of dry land described as wet land in Village records under T.P.Nos.17077 and 16763 comprising in Sy.Nos.107/21B2, 107/21B1, 107/21A and 108/12A -32 of Kulasekharamangalam Village as evidenced by tax receipt dated 22.04.2014. The petitioners 1, 2 and 5 claim to be the owners of the property having an extent of 0.3571 hectare of dry land described as wet land in Village records under T.P.No.21550 comprising in Sy.No.87/1 of Kulasekharamangalam Village as evidenced by tax receipt dated 22.04.2014. In the above manner, all the petitioners claim to be the owners of the properties having a total extend of 1.7584 hectare of land lying in one block in Kulasekharamangalam Village of Vaikom Taluk.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners are entitled for a declaration from this Court in the light of the dictum laid down by this Court in Revenue Divisional Officer, Fort Kochi and others v. Jalaja Dileep and another (2014 (1) KLT 161), to effectuate changes in the Basic Tax Register as the properties have been reclaimed long before the enactment of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wet Land Act, 2008 (for short the "Act 28 of 2008"). It is further submitted, without prejudice to the petitioners' right as above, for seeking a declaration, the petitioners are entitled to convert or utilise the above land for any other purposes other than for cultivating food crops, as these properties are no longer fit for any cultivation.