The legality of land purchase, construction, and eviction under the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act.

The petitioner states that since 1947 onwards, the lands in Survey No.74 of Korattur Village, Ambattur Taluk of the then Chingleput District were utilized for agricultural operations by various persons. He states that the said lands were classified as “Odai Poramboke” in the Revenue records. He states that in the year 1967, beam notices evidencing the enjoyment of the respective landholders were issued by the Revenue Department. He states that between 1987 and 1994 various persons purchased the said lands from the persons who were in enjoyment of the said lands under registered sale deeds registered by the Sub Registrar Office, Thirumangalam, Chennai. He states that invariably the lands were purchased only for the construction of houses and the extent of lands purchased by the said persons varied between 900 and 1200 square feet. He states that subsequent to the purchase of the said plots, most of the persons had constructed their own dwelling houses by spending their life saving amounts and also by borrowing loans from Banks and other financial institutions. He states that it is more than 20 years since most of the persons purchased the said lands and constructed the houses.

2. The petitioner further states that he is one of those persons who purchased an extent of 1320 sq. feet in Survey No.74/B2D of Korattur Village under registered sale deed dated 30.11.2001 from Mrs.Thangam and Mr. Thamizhvanan. True copy of the said sale deed under which he purchased the aforesaid land is annexed hereto. He states that the land purchased by him were assigned to his vendors under Assignment Order dated 30.09.1991 by the Special Tahsildar, Saidapet and Collector of Kancheepuram since his vendors were legal representatives of Army personnel. He states that by order dated 18.10.2004 the building plan for his house was approved by the third respondent Municipality. True copy of which is annexed hereto with planning permit. True copy of the Assignment Order dated 23.03.1990 issued by the Collector of Kancheepuram to his vendor is also annexed hereto.

3. The petitioner further states that after the construction of the house, the petitioner and his family members were peacefully living in the said house for the past 15 years. He states that the Special Tahsildar, Town Survey Final Audit Section of Ambattur Municipality after due inspection and survey, classified the part of Survey No.74 i.e. Survey No.74/B2 to an extent of 0.211.0 hectares as gramanattam. He states that this classification was duly entered in the Town Survey Land Register maintained by the Town Survey Final Audit Register. He states that the first respondent also issued G.O.Ms.No.854 dated 30.12.2006 with various instructions, true copy of which is annexed hereto. He states that in particular, the following instructions were issued in the said G.O.Ms.No.854 dated 30.12.2006 are very relevant:-

(a) In order to regularise the unauthorised construction in which persons were residing more than 10 years, guidelines were issued by relaxing the rules in the following manner for the purpose of granting patta for the said lands within six months from January 2007.

(b) The lands which were described as Nattam Poramboke which is not put to use (by the respective Municipality, Major Panchayat and Minor Panchayat) in which the persons have constructed houses and are in enjoyment for more than 10 years can be inspected by the District Collector and other officers on merit basis and patta can be regularised.

(c) The lands which were classified as Odai Poramboke must be inspected by the said committee presided over by the District Collector before regularisation. The scheme is called one time scheme.

4. The petitioner further states that pursuant to the said G.O.Ms.No.854 dated 30.12.2006 issued by the first respondent, he submitted an application before the second respondent, the Collector of Tiruvallur in March 2007 when he came to Jamabandhi at Ambattur Taluk Office praying to grant patta i