JISHA JICKSON Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the absolute owner in possession of 3.84 Ares of land comprised in Re-survey No.178/1-5 and 8.30 Ares in Re-survey No.178/4-2, lying contiguously in block No.3 of Chethipuzha village, Kottayam District. The petitioner purchased the aforesaid properties from her own father, as per Exhibits P2 and P3. The tax receipt is seen at Exhibit P4 and the ownership certificate at Exhibit P5, both in the name of her father. The draft data bank, prepared under the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008 [for brevity "Paddy Land Act"] included the aforesaid land as "converted land", which is evident from the extract produced at Exhibit P6.

(2.) Earlier the petitioner had applied under Section 3A of the Paddy Land Act for regularisation of the conversion effected. The said provision is no longer available in the statute and, therefore, no regularisation can be made. However, the Village Officer's report on the basis of the application under Section 3A is relevant, is the submission of the petitioner. The report is produced at Exhibit P7. The documents produced along with Exhibit P7 includes the extract of the Basic Tax Register, which indicates the property to be "nilam". The particulars as to the current use of the reclaimed paddy land is shown as "agricultural purpose (coconut)". The Village Officer has recommended regularisation of the reclamation. Before the regularisation could be made, the provision itself was deleted from the statute and, hence, the amounts as fixed in Exhibit P7 report was not accepted by the authorities. Exhibit P7 report also includes the location plan, which is on physical inspection of the property. It is stated that the property has been converted and is existing with standing coconut trees. The petitioner's difficulty is insofar as the description of the property in the Basic Tax Register [for brevity "BTR"], being "nilam", as evident from Exhibit P7. The petitioner has now filed an application before the Revenue Divisional Officer [for brevity "RDO"] for conversion of user, as evidenced from Exhibit P11. The RDO has also been impleaded as the additional 7th respondent.

(3.) This Court had directed the Local Level Monitoring Committee [for brevity "LLMC"] to file a report after conducting an inspection of the property and also after obtaining a Report on Land Use Change from the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Center [KSREC]. The reports have been placed on record by way of a memo dated 20.07.2017.