The competent authority must decide statutory land classification applications within a reasonable time as mandated by law.

JUDGMENT

Petitioner is the owner of various extent of lands. Petitioner alleges that she had filed an application in Form 6 under Rule 12(1) of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Rules , 2008 (for short ‘the Rules’) copy of which is produced as Ext.P2.

2. According to the petitioner, the property is not a paddy land, but it has been wrongly described as paddy land in the revenue records, which requires variation. For changing the nature of land in the revenue records, she filed the application on 21.01.2026. However, it is alleged that a decision has not been taken on the said application till date.

3. Form 6 application filed by the petitioner is a statutory application as per Rule 12(1) of the Rules. The competent authority, therefore, has a legal duty to consider the said application in accordance with law within a reasonable time, provided it has been submitted along with all supporting documents and the prescribed fee.

4. Having heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Government Pleader, I am of the view that this writ petition can be disposed of with a direction to take a decision on Ext.P2 application in a time bound manner.

Accordingly, there will be a direction to the 5^th respondent Village Officer to submit a report on the basis of Ext. P2 application to the 2^nd respondent or the Authorised Officer, within a period of one month from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment and thereafter, the 2^nd respondent or the Authorised Officer shall pass appropriate orders within a period of three months thereafter.

The writ petition is disposed of accordingly.

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