RATHEESH T. M. Vs. AGRICULTURAL OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the owner in possession a property having an extent of 3.7403 Ares comprised in Survey No.62/4 (renumbered as 62/28) of Chelannur Village, Kozhikode Taluk in Kozhikode District. The petitioner purchased the said property as per Ext.P1 sale deed dtd. 16/2/2021.

(2.) According to the petitioner, he purchased the said property after being convinced of the fact that the property was not included in the Data Bank. After the purchase of the said property, the petitioner applied for a building permit for constructing a residential building, and after processing the said application, the 7th respondent granted Ext.P8 building permit. However, as certain objections were raised with regard to the same, in view of the fact that property remained as paddy land in the revenue records, the petitioner submitted Ext.P9 application in Form 6 on 28/1/2022. While the said application was pending consideration, the petitioner was served with Ext.P10 notice by the Secretary to the 7th respondent, requiring the petitioner to show cause why the building permit granted to him shall not be cancelled. The reason mentioned in Ext.P10 was that, as per the report of the Convenor of Local Level Monitoring Committee/Agricultural Officer, it was decided by the LLMC to include the property of the petitioner in the Data Bank as paddy land.

(3.) An objection to the same was submitted by the petitioner as evidenced by Ext.P11. In the meantime, challenging Ext.P10, W.P(C) No.15346/2022 was filed by the petitioner before this Court. During the pendency of the said writ petition due to a wrong advise, the petitioner submitted a Form 5 application under the impression that the property was already included in the Data Bank. This Court disposed of W.P(C) No.15346/2022 directing the Revenue Divisional Officer to consider the Form 5 application within a time frame. In the counter affidavit filed by the Panchayat in W.P(C) No.15346/2022, a certificate dtd. 7/2/2023 issued by the 1st respondent, the Agricultural Officer, was produced, wherein it was mentioned that, in the meeting of LLMC convened on 1/2/2022, they have taken a decision to include the property of the petitioner in the Data Bank and since the writ petition was pending, notification to that effect has not been published. Ext P13 in this writ petition is the said certificate.