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2024 Supreme(Online)(KER) 53167
HIGH COURT OF KERALA
A. Muhamed Mustaque, Shoba Annamma Eapen, JJ
ANIL JACOB – Appellant
Versus
THE DISTRICT COLLECTOR – Respondent
WP(C) 20638/2022
K.REGHU KOTTAPPURAM R.MAHESH (KOTTAPPURAM) N.K.SHYJU ANANYA M.(K/987/2022)
The court affirmed that lands assigned by royal proclamation are private and transferable, entitling the petitioner to an NOC for construction if title is traceable.
Headnote:(A) Land Assignment - Private, Heritable, Saleable Property - The petitioner sought a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for construction on land traceable to a titleholder. The court noted that lands assigned by the Maha Rajah of Travancore are considered private and transferable. (Paras 2-4)
(B) NOC Issuance - The court directed that if the petitioner’s Thandaper Register is traceable to the original titleholder, the NOC should be granted after verification. (Paras 4)
Facts of the case:
The petitioner claimed proprietary rights in land for residential construction, supported by documents including a Possession Certificate and Thandaper Register.
Findings of Court:
The court emphasized the need for verification of records before issuing the NOC.
Issues: The primary issue was the legitimacy of the petitioner’s claim for NOC based on historical land assignment.
Ratio Decidendi: The court ruled that the petitioner is entitled to an NOC if the title can be traced, reinforcing the principle of land rights under royal proclamations.
Result: Writ petition disposed of with directions.
JUDGMENT
A. MUHAMED MUSTAQUE, J.
The petitioner has approached this Court as the District Collector has not considered his application for No Objection Certificate (NOC) to put up a construction of less than 2000 sq.ft. in a land comprised in Sy.No.232/1 for residential purpose.
2. As seen from the pleadings and documents produced before this Court, the petitioner claims a proprietary right in the property traceable to the title of one Subbu Singh, son of Man Singh. The Thandaper Register is produced as Ext.P6, which is also seen corresponding to the survey number of the property in possession of the petitioner as evident from Ext.P5 Possession Certificate. It seems that it is a part of cardamom plantation. But, no one has a case that it has been assigned for cardamom plantation under any of the statutory provisions.
3. It is to be noted that the Maha Rajah of Travancore, by proclamation, assigned land to the benefit of the people and these lands are to be considered as private, heritable, saleable and otherwise transferable property. A Full Bench of this Court in Rev.Fr.Victor Fernandez v. Albert Fernandez & Others [1971 KHC 1] considered that ”Pandarapattam” lands were declared as private, heritable, saleable property of the holders by the Royal proclamation of 1040.
4. Anyway, we are not going into the details of the issue in the matter in the sense that we only need to consider the claim made by the petitioner for issuance of NOC. If the Thandaper Register of the petitioner is traceable to the Thandaper Register of Subbu Singh, son of Man Singh, the petitioner should be given NOC for construction of a residential building as above, after verifying records. Needful shall be done within a period of four weeks.
The writ petition is disposed of accordingly.
