ABDUL RASHEED.P Vs. THE DISTRICT COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is stated to be the owner in possession of 0.8958 hectares of land in Survey No.168/3, 8, 14 and 271/3/1/1 and 271/3/2 of Elappully-I village of Palakkad Taluk, Palakkad District. It is the case of the petitioner in the writ petition that the vendor of the petitioner had obtained Ext.P3 order from the 2nd respondent Revenue Divisional Officer, clarifying that most of the lands are not cultivated with paddy for the past 50 years, and that the said lands will not come under the ambit of KLU Order, 1967, and the petitioner, after purchasing the land, set up a crusher unit in the said premises. In the writ petition, the petitioner essentially prays for a direction to consider the application submitted by him in terms of Section 3A of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008, (for short '2008 Act'). Noticing that Section 3A has since been deleted from the 2008 Act, the petitioner prayed that the land in question be deleted from the Data Bank, if the same is included therein.

(2.) When the matter came up for admission this Court called for a report from the Agriculture Officer as also from the W.P.(C). No. 13521 of 2016 (M) Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre (KSREC). A report has since been filed by the KSREC as also the Agricultural Officer. A perusal of the said report would indicate that the land in question had already been converted to one with mixed plantation crops and the land is not suitable for paddy cultivation. It is also stated by the Agricultural Officer that the land in question is not included in the Land Data Bank prepared for the region.

(3.) Taking note of the said report, and the judgments of this Court and the Supreme Court in Adani Infrastructure & Developers Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Kerala - [2015 (1) KLT 651]; Local Level Monitoring Committee under Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and WetLand Act, 2008 v. Ali Akbar - [2015 (1) KLT 906]; Revenue Divisional Officer, Fort Kochi and Others v. Jalaja Dileep and Another - [2015 (2) KHC 109] and Local Level Monitoring Committee Constituted under Section 5 of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008 in Kizhakkambalam Grama Panchayat v. Mariumma - [2015 (2) KLT 516], by which, it is now settled that it is only if the property is included in the land data bank, and is described as 'Nilam' in the Basic Tax Register, that the provisions of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and WetLand Act, 2008 [hereinafter referred to as the '2008 Act'], will apply, and otherwise it is the Kerala Land Utilization W.P.(C). No. 13521 of 2016 (M) Order, 1967 [hereinafter referred to as the 'KLU Order'] that will regulate the conversion of lands, the writ petition is disposed with the following directions: