GURUSWAMY RAMASWAMY Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in all these cases are claiming possession of certain extends of land in the Chinnakanal village and assert that they are entitled to be assigned such properties in their favour by the competent Authority under the Land Assignment Act and Rules.

(2.) According to the petitioners, all of them have been in possession of the respective properties claimed by them, for the last several decades and therefore, that the Government are now obligated in law to consider their applications for assignment and to order them in their favour.

(3.) However, the petitioners in WP(C) No. 34196/2007 and WP(C) No. 33460/2014 concede that subsequent to directions of this Court in earlier proceedings, the Principal Secretary to the Government of Kerala, Department of Revenue, has already decided, through orders issued by the said Authority, that the lands in question are Government Lands, which have been under the custody of the Forest Department ever since 1960 and that the said Department has handed over these properties to the Hindustan News Print Ltd (HNL for short) for captive Eucalyptus Plantation. These orders have been produced as Ext.P8 in WP(C) No. 34196/2007 and as Ext.P9 in WP(C) 33460 of 2014, wherein the Principal Secretary further says that the petitioners have not produced any documents to prove their claim over the respective properties except the request for assignment; and that the lands do not fall in assignable category, though being classified as Revenue Lands, but it being entrusted to the Forest Department for protection.