The court ruled that the petitioner failed to establish a legal right over the property, and eviction must follow due process under the Land Conservancy Act.

JUDGMENT :

Muralee Krishna, J.

1. This writ petition is filed by the petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following reliefs:

“(i) Issue an appropriate writ, order or direction against respondent nos. 3 to 5 not to interfere with the peaceful possession, occupation and enjoyment of the house property of the petitioner extending 5 cents of property comprised in Sy No.917 of KDH Village, covered by Exts.P1 and P2 documents.

(ii) Issue a writ of mandamus directing the respondents not to dispossess the petitioner from his house plot during the pendency of the proceedings”

2. Going by the averments in the writ petition, the petitioner belongs to scheduled caste agricultural workers community. The father of the petitioner obtained 5 cents of property in survey No.917 of Kannan Devan Hills Village more than 30 years ago. After constructing a hut, the family of the petitioner has been in residential occupation of the property. After the death of his father, the petitioner reconstructed the house. Ext.P1 certificate of possession dated 06.11.1992 was issued to the petitioner by the Village Officer of KDH Village. The house is situated in the limits of Munnar Grama Panchayat and the petitioner was issued with Ext.P2 ownership certificate dated 16.06.2016 by the Secretary of the Munnar Grama Panchayat wherein the house number is shown as IX/1558. The petitioner is having Ext.P3 ration card and Ext.P4 Aadhar card at the very same address. The property in the possession of the petitioner is an assignable government land and several assignments have been made in the neighbourhood. The petitioner preferred application for assignment before the 3^rd respondent Tahsildar, Devikularm Taluk, on 08.08.2010, which bears the file No.556 of 2010 of the office of the 4^th respondent the Special Tahsildar (Land Assignment) to whom it was later transferred. Since no action was followed even after submitting several applications for assignment, the petitioner approached this Court with the above writ petition.

3. The 5th respondent Special Tahsildar, Munnar, filed a counter affidavit opposing the averments in the writ petition.Paragraphs 3 to 14 of that counter affidavit read thus:

“3. It is submitted that the Government as per GO(MS) No.201/2010/RD dated 31.06.2010 created a special Revenue Office to protect the Government land in Munnar area. It is the duty of the special office to find out encroachment into the Government land prevent unauthorized construction and to protect the Government land. During the routine checks conducted from the office of the 5^th respondent it was noticed that the petitioner has encroached into the Government land comprised in Sy. No.917 in KDH Village (now Munnar Village). However, since the 5^th respondent is not vested with the powers to proceed under the Kerala Land Conservancy Act, the Village Officer, Munnar was directed to report encroachment to the Tahsildar (LR) Devikulam. On the face of actions under Land Conservancy Act, the petitioner approached this Hon’ble Court and filed the present writ petition.

4. It is submitted that there are a lot of encroachments into the Government property in Munnar and the neighbouring Villages. A lot of buildings, both residential and commercial have been constructed in the encroached lands. Even though the petitioner claims that he was born and brought up in the house situated in the property under question, it is evident from Exhibits P1, P2 and P3 that he has changed his residence. In Exhibit P1 and P2 the address of the petitioner is shown as Old Laksham Colony, Munnar whereas in Exhibit P3 it is shown as MG Colony, Munnar. It is evident from these Exhibits that the petitioner having a house in Old Laksham Colony, has deliberately encroached into the Government land and constructed another building. Now he is trying for assignment of the encroached land, concealing the facts.

5. It is submitted that the Village Officer has authority to issue possession cert