Proper procedures under the Kerala Survey and Boundaries Act must be followed for rectifying land survey errors, ensuring that property owners receive necessary notice.

J U D G M E N T

The prayers in the above writ petition (Civil) are as follows:

“A). to call for the records leading to the issuance of Exhibits P3 notice issued by the sixth respondent and P4 sketch prepared by the fifth respondent and to issue a writ of certiorari and quash the same.

B) to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ order or direction directing the sixth respondent to keep in abeyance all further proceedings pursuant to Exhibit P3 to enable the petitioner to approach the second respondent to file an application under Section 13A of the Kerala Survey and Boundaries Act, 1961 to rectify the errors that have crept in the re-survey plan;

C) pass such other writ order or direction that this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case;

D) to award the cost of this petition.”

2. Heard Sri.K.Shaj, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Smt.A.C.Vidhya, learned Government Pleader appearing for official respondents 1 to 5. In the nature of the orders proposed to be passed in this Writ Petition, notices to contesting respondents 6 to 9 will stand dispensed with.

3. According to the petitioner, part of his property which is within his lawful title, possession and enjoyment has been illegally shown as “puramboke” due to serious errors and mistakes in the re-survey process. The petitioner also suspects that it could be due to the illegal influence asserted by the contesting respondents 7 to 9 on the authorities concerned. The petitioner would point out that the impugned Ext.P-4 re-survey sketch has been prepared on the basis of such defective re-survey plan and without notice to the petitioner and that the same can be interfered with in the light of the dictum laid down by this Court in the judgment in the case in Muhammed Kutty v. Tahsildar [2013(1)KLT 133].

4. According to the petitioner, his registered holding is demarcated by 30 year old boundary. That a way granted to the predecessor-in-title of respondents 7 to 9 for ingress and egress to the kudikidappu by the predecessor in title of the petitioner for 40 years back and portions of the property of the petitioner is now wrongly shown as puramboke in the said re-survey plan. It is further stated that the petitioner as well as the property owner opposite to the way have already secured injunction order from the civil court concerned. The complaint of the petitioner now he has been served with Ext.P-3 order dated 04.01.2019 issued by the 6th respondent-Thumpamon Grama Panchayath which according to the petitioner is even otherwise in violation of law and unsustainable. Apart from seeking to challenge Exts.P-3 & P-4, the petitioner seeks direction to the 6th respondent to keep in abeyance all further proceedings pursuant to Ext.P-3 notice to enable the petitioner to approach the 2nd respondent-District Collect to file a revision petition under Sec.13A of the Kerala Survey & Boundaries Act to correct and rectify the serious errors and mistakes that are crept in the re-survey plan. It is in the light of these factual averments, the petitioner has filed the instant Writ Petition (Civil) with the aforementioned prayers.

5. The petitioner would contend that the impugned Ext.P-3 notice is per se illegal as it is in blatant violation of the mandatory procedure prescribed under Rule 5 of the Kerala Panchayath Raj (Removal of Encroachment and Imposition and Recovery of Penalty for Unauthorised Occupation) Rules, 1996, which mandates free service of notice to the occupant before eviction, etc. Further, the petitioner would point out that the impugned Ext.P-4 re-survey plan, in view of the dictum laid down by this Court in Muhammed Kutty v. Tahsildar [2013(1)KLT 133].

6. Sri.K.Shaj, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit on the basis of instructions of his party that the petitioner would immediately file a statutory revision petition under Rule 13A of the Kerala Survey & Boundaries Act, 1961 before the 2nd responden