Local Level Monitoring Committee lacks authority to designate land as paddy after a contrary ruling by Revenue Divisional Officer, affirming court decisions are binding.

J U D G M E N T

[WA Nos.1320/2023, 1332/2023, 1333/2023, 1334/2023, 1337/2023]

A. Muhamed Mustaque, Acg.C.J.

The short point that arises for consideration in these batch of appeals is as to the competency of the Local Level Monitoring Committee (for short “LLMC”) to include a land in the data bank as paddy land after having passed an order by the Revenue Divisional Officer that the land is not a paddy land and permission can be granted to utilise the land for other purposes and also acting on that order, this Court gave direction to reassess the land tax under the Kerala Land Tax Act . We may not have any dispute as to the competency of the LLMC to include or exclude any land to the data bank at any point of time. But propriety of such action can be called in question, only if such an action would overreach the judgment of this Court, which is equally binding on revenue and the Government as well.

2. The brief facts involved in these case are as follows:

3. The appellant approached the Revenue Divisional Officer, Fort kochi with an application under Clause 6(2) of the Kerala Land Utilisation Order for the purpose of utilising the land for construction and other developmental activities. The Revenue Divisional Officer on 10.02.2011 passed a very reasoned order, which reads as follows:

“In view of the various decisions of the Hon. High Court of Kerala and on the basis the reports of the statutory authorities mentioned above I convinced that the applied land is not a paddy land as defined in Section 2 (xii) of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act (act 28 of 2008). Hence permission is granted under clause 6(2) of KLU Order 1967 for constructional and developmental activities in the extending to 20.20 Ares, 16.00 Ares, 11.33 Ares, 22.40 Ares, 14.58 Ares, 10.80 Ares, 5.00 Ares, 11.15 Ares, 24.60 Ares, 18.40 Ares, 14.75 Ares, 16.80 Ares, and 21.10 Ares in Block No.7, comprising in Sy. No.373/10, 399/5, 373/3, 373/9, 372/1, 372/2, 372/3, 375/6, 373/11, 373/2, 373/4, 373/1 and 349/14 respectively in Kakkanad Village subject to the provisions of Kerala Municipal Building Rules, 1999. the direction contained in the judgment dated 24.11.2010 in W.P. (C) No.35255/2010 (F) is complied with accordingly.”

4. Thereafter, the appellants approached this Court in the year 2020 in W.P. (C) No.10599 of 2020. This writ petition was filed to effect changes in the Basic Tax Register consequent upon the order passed by the Revenue Divisional Officer invoking the provisions of the Kerala Land Utilisation Order . A detailed order of this Court would show that the land has been treated as Purayidam (Converted land) and this Court ordered to effect changes in the Land Tax Assessment Register in the light of the order passed by the Revenue Divisional Officer. It is specifically noted that this Court ordered the Revenue Divisional Officer to pass an order under Section 6A of the Kerala Land Tax Act showing the nature of the land as garden land/Purayidam in stead of earlier Basic Tax Register entry as Nilam/paddy land. The Tahsildar and Village officer were parties to the proceedings. Nobody had a case at that time that this land has to be treated as a paddy land even though the revenue officials were party to those proceedings.

5. After the above judgment, the revenue officials carried out changes in the Land Tax and reassessed the land as purayidam.

6. On 03.02.2021, the Local Level Monitoring Committee included the land in the data bank showing it as a paddy land. It is to be noted that the Local Level Monitoring Committee includes Village Officer, Agricultural Officer etc. As we already noted, we do not have any dispute regarding the power of the LLMC to include a land as paddy land or wet land in the data bank at any point of time. The present problem in this case is that the Revenue Divisional Officer in