Court asks govt to return prime land acquired 52 ... - Real Estate India

??|?? January 7, 2013 ?? 02:42pm ??|Contributed by manoja

CHENNAI: The Madras high court asked the Tamil Nadu government to re-convey a piece of land opposite the Raj Bhavan ? measuring 1.62 acres and worth at least 150 crore ? 52 years after it was acquired for a public purpose.

Justice K N Basha, passing an order on the writ petition of five legal heirs of the land owners, directed the government to hand over the land in 12 weeks after receiving the original compensation amount. The government, however, has preferred a review petition and it is pending.

It was in August 1960 that the state government initiated the acquisition of the property on Sardar Patel Road for a public purpose of constructing a hostel and buildings for the Central Cooperative Institute. The land?s original owners ? Manali Ramakrishna Mudaliar and Manali Parthasarathy Mudaliar ? received a compensation of 33,947. The two died in May 1999 and April 2002, respectively.

In 2006, their five legal heirs filed a writ petition asking for the re-conveyance of the property, as the lands had not been utilised for the purpose for which it had been acquired. It was after filing of the writ petition that the government came to know about the property, and realised that it had somehow fallen into the hands of the highways department and that an association of highway department engineers too had been occupying the lands.

Though the high court asked the government to consider the representation of the legal heirs, it was rejected in 2007, on the ground that the property was under possession of the government for more than 40 years. After another round of litigation, the government gave them a hearing and passed a fresh order in 2008 holding that the acquired lands could not be used due to financial constraints and that steps had been taken to retrieve it from the highways department.

While Syed Mustafa, counsel for the heirs, said the land had not been used for the original purpose for 47 years and that it had been encroached, additional advocate-general S Gomathynayagam said the writ by legal heirs could not be maintained as the original owners had received the compensation.

Justice Basha, holding that the legal heirs could seek re-conveyance of the lands under Section 48-B of the Land Acquisition Act, said: ?The subject land has not been utilized for the specific purpose for which it was acquired. The cooperative department and the Chennai district collector have not raised their little finger by taking any action to utilize the land for any other public purpose, at least. It is to be reiterated that only in 2006, that too after the petitioners filed the petition, the Mambalam-Guindy tahsildar suddenly woke up and inspected the land and found pucca buildings erected by the Association of Highways Engineers and the highways department. The authorities have not produced any material or any scrap of document to show as to how the said land was occupied by the highways department.?

The state government acquired the land in 1960 on Sardar Patel Road for a public purpose of constructing a hostel and buildings for the Central Cooperative Institute.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Court-asks-govt-to-return-prime-land-acquired-52-yrs-ago/articleshow/17919325.cms

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