REVENUE DIVISIONAL OFFICER / SUB COLLECTOR Vs. JACOB BOBAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Respondent presently is the owner in possession of 12.95 Ares of land in Re.Sy.No.116/7 in Block No.24 of Mulanthuruthy Village. He had owned 17 Ares originally out of which 4.05 Ares was sold in 2019. He had applied under Clause 6 of Kerala Land Utilization Order, 1967 for permission to utilize the property for other purposes including construction of building, by Ext.P9.

(2.) The Respondent had approached this Court in W.P. (C)No.4883/2013 aggrieved by a communication from the Secretary of the Grama Panchayat by which an application for building permit was refused for the reason that the land was shown as 'paddy land' in the data bank. Ext.P9 application was submitted during the pendency of the writ petition. The writ petition was disposed on 9/1/2018 by declaring that the property of the Respondent was not classifiable either as 'paddy land' or 'wetland' under the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008. The LLMC was directed to exclude the land from data bank. Supplementary directions were also issued.

(3.) By Ext.P12 proceedings dtd. 10/1/2019 the Sub Collector, Fort Kochi disposed of Ext.P9 application. Permission was granted for utilising part of the property already reclaimed for nonagricultural purposes. However, a condition was imposed that the water channel in the property should be retained as such. It was stated that if the water channel was filled it may result in blocking of natural draining of water and may adversely affect agricultural operations in the surrounding areas and also may affect the ecosystem.