AJI DIVAKAR Vs. DISTRICT COLLECTOR, COLLECTORATE, ERNAKULAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved with the rejection of building permit at Ext.P3 by the 6 th respondent. The petitioner is in ownership and possession of 7.69 Ares in Survey No.152/7A, 12.54 Ares in Survey No.152/7B and 1.21 Acres in Survey No.145/6 of Puthenvelikara Village. The petitioner is running a school therein with an existing building. The petitioner wanted to construct additional buildings, for which an application was filed, which was rejected as per Ext.P3. The tax receipts evidencing the ownership on the petitioner is produced at Ext.P1. The possession certificate is produced as Ext.P2. The present construction is sought in the property in Survey No.145/6, which is described as 'wet land' in Ext.P2 possession certificate. The construction also extends to Survey No.152/7B, which, again, is described in the revenue records as 'nilam'. This was the reason for rejection of the building permit.

(2.) The petitioner is said to have approached this Court with a request for consideration under Section 3A of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wet Land Act, 2008 ('Paddy Land Act' for short). This Court is said to have directed such consideration. Pursuant to such direction, the Village Officer has inspected the property. A report was filed as per Ext.P6. Coconut, teak and other trees were noted in the property. It was reported that though in village records it is indicated as 'nilam' the land is lying as a dry land. The petitioner filed an application under Clause (6) {Ext.P7} under the Kerala Land Utilization Order, 1967, (for brevity KLU Order ), since Section 3A was deleted from the Statute. The petitioner seeks consideration of Ext.P7.

(3.) This Court had directed the Local Level Monitoring Committee (LLMC) to inspect the property and report on the lie and nature since it was a small extent, on which construction was sought for. The LLMC inspected the property and the Agricultural Officer filed a report dated 23.11.2016. This was in consonance with the report of the Village Officer. However, the Agricultural Officer had reported that there is a building constructed in Survey No.152/7A in the year 2011. Since that was after the implementation of the Paddy Land Act in 2008, this Court again directed a report to be filed by the LLMC after obtaining a Report of the Land Use Change from the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Center (KSREC). The said reports have been placed on record, by the learned Government Pleader by memo dated 03.06.2017.