Compliance with statutory provisions is crucial for land conversion under the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008.

1. The petitioner seeks a prayer to quash Exts.P8 and P14 stop memos issued by the Village Officer and the Sub Collector, Perinthalmanna, to stop the attempt of the petitioner to construct a rainwater harvesting tank in a property which is included in the databank prepared under the provisions of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008 (for short, the Act and the Rules). S.3 of the said Act, prohibits the conversion or reclamation of paddy land from the date of commencement of the Act and the owner, occupier or the person in custody of any paddy land shall not undertake any activity for the conversion or reclamation of such paddy land except in accordance with the provisions of the Act. All that is permissible under S.3 (2) is the cultivation of the intermediary crops without changing the ecological nature of that paddy land or the strengthening of the outer bunds for protecting the cultivation.

2. It is not disputed that the properties are included in the databank that is so, the petitioner has to take recourse to the provisions of the Act and Rules to get the property removed from the databank, if the same is permissible and also to seek permission to change the nature of land for making construction. The prayer in the writ petition is to declare the petitioner is entitled to construct a temporary tarpaulin tank in his property which cannot be allowed for the reasons stated above.