Land reserved for community purposes remains saleable, provided it is used for the intended purpose, and local authorities cannot claim ownership without a legal transfer.

ORDER

This writ petition has been filed seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus, directing the 4^th respondent to remove the 3^rd respondent's name in the Extract from the Town Survey Land Register dated 28.08.2018 in respect of the petitioner's property measuring an extent of 3682 square meter – Community Hall site comprised in S.F.Nos.380, 381 and 373(Part) of Vilankurichi Village situate at Gurusamy Nagar, Vilankurichi Village, Coimbatore District.

2. The brief facts leading to the filing of the present writ petition are as follows:-

(i) A larger extent of land measuring Acres 18.16 Cents comprised in S.No.373 (part), 380 and 381 situate at Vilankurichi Village of Coimbatore Corporation was promoted as house sites and the layout was named as Gurusamy Nagar. Approval was granted by local planning authority, Coimbatore in L.P/R (CPN) No.69/87. As part of the layout a reserved site for constructing community hall was promoted.

(ii) The petitioners acquired the above said site comprised in S.F.Nos.380 & 381 of Vilankurichi village within the limit of Coimbatore Corporation under two different sale deeds dated 16.07.1990 registered as Doc.Nos.4226 of 1990 and 4227 of 1990 and two settlement deeds dated 19.10.2009 registered as Doc.Nos.4384 of 2009 and 4385 of 2009 respectively. The petitioner acquired the said land after the layout approval accorded by the office of the 2^nd respondent and 4^th respondent vide order dated 21.07.1988 in Na.Ka.No.126630/1987/H.13 in S.F.Nos.380, 381 and 373 (part). The total extent of layout is 7.3475 Hectares (Acres 18.16 Cents). The extent allotted for public purposes are, 3929 square meters for park, 3682 square meters, 468 square meters for Shop-1, and 207 square meters for Shop-2.

(iii) Subsequently, the 1^st respondent by circular dated 24.05.1985 issued under Roc.No.18150/85-GL, clarified that as the word "Reserved Lands" stipulated in the layout condition mentioned above requires explicit definition as the lands reserved in the layout would include Park, Play Field, Community Halls, Kalyana Mandapams, etc.,it was felt that it would be sufficient if the area reserved as open space , like Park, Play Field, Children Play Space alone need to be handed over to the executive authority of the local body concerned as they essentially belong to the category of non-commercial public purposes. As the other reservations like Kalyana Mandapams, Community Halls, etc., belong to commercial category, it was felt that the layout owner should not be deprived of income which he may likely to get by disposal of these plots as he has to make surrender to Executive Authority of the local body a sizeable amount of land by way of non-commercial open spaces, instructions have already been issued by office circular in Roc.No.9798/1983-BCC dated 29.06.1984 that in layouts which are of less than 10 Acres in extent, 10% of such area should be reserved only for open spaces such as, parks, play fields, etc., and in cases of layout more than 10 Acres in extent, 50% of the total reservation may be provided for