JUDGMENT

The petitioners say that they are the owners of 10 cents of land each, comprised of in old Sy.No.62/7 of Pudunagaram Village, Palakkad and have produced Exts.P1, P3, P4 and P6 in substantiation.

2. The petitioners say that even though they were allowed to remit land tax on the properties in question in the past, as is evident from Exts.P2 and P5, they have now been denied permission to do so by the respondents, without citing any cogent reason. They, therefore, pray that the competent among respondents 1 and 2 be directed to allow them to pay tax on the properties covered by their title deeds, within a time frame to be fixed by this Court.

3. The afore submissions of Sri.Aboobacker Siddique – learned counsel for the petitioners, were answered by the learned Senior Government Pleader – Sri.Ashwin Sethumadhavan, saying that respondents 1 and 2 are incapacitated from allowing the petitioners to remit the land tax on their properties, because it is abutting or lying adjacent to certain properties which have already been determined as being 'surplus land', under the Kerala Land Reforms Act (KLR Act). He submitted that, therefore, unless there is a proper investigation to the ext