K. SIRAJUDEEN Vs. DISTRICT COLLECTOR COLLECTORATE (PO), PALAKKAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is stated to be the owner in possession of 0.4215 hectares of land in Resurvey No. 168/11 of Elappully-I village of Palakkad Taluk, Palakkad District. It is the case of the petitioner in the writ petition that the predecessor-in-interest of the petitioner had obtained an order under the Kerala Land Utilization Order, 1967, permitting the conversion of the land for other purposes, and pursuant thereto, the land was converted 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 now prays 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 Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre (KSREC). A (L) 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 in 2007 itself 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 and 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 (L) Land and WetLand Act, 2008 [hereinafter referred to as the '2008 Act'], will apply, and otherwise it is the Kerala Land Utilization 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: