The prayers in the aforecaptioned Writ

Petition (Civil) are as follows:

“I. to issue a writ of mandamus or any

other writ order or direction to

direct the 1^st respondent to continue

to accept basic tax from the

petitioners as was being done

previously and referable to Exhibit-P

3-A, Exhibit P4-A & Exhibit P5-A

unless and until prohibited by a

judicial order.

And,

issue each other writ, order or

direction as this Hon'ble Court deems

fit and proper.”

2.

Heard Sri.M.Krishna Kumar, learned counsel

appearing for the petitioners and Sri.Jestin

Mathew, learned Government Pleader appearing for

official respondents 1 & 2. In the nature of the

orders proposed to be passed in this Writ Petition,

notice to contesting respondent No.3 will stand

dispensed with.

3.

The petitioners’ state that they are “Land

holders” as defined under Sec.3(3) of the Kerala

Land Tax Act, 1961 and that the three petitioners

herein owned 23, 6.5 & 12 cents of lands, which are

portions of the larger extent scheduled to Ext.P-1

Purchase Certificate issued in the year 1990 by the

Land Tribunal, Parappanangadi. That thereafter,

mutations have also been duly carried out by the

predecessors in the interest of the petitioners and

the petitioners have been regularly paying basic

land tax under the Kerala Land Tax Act, 1961. That

each of the petitioners have also separately built

residential houses in these small parts of the land

and has been living there undisturbed for quite a

long number of years, it is stated. The copies of

the property tax receipts accepted from the

petitioners are produced as documents as in

Exts.P-3(a), P-4(a), P-5(a) respectively and copies

of the building property tax receipts issued by the

local authority concerned in respect of the

petitioners have been produced as Exts.P-3(b),

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P-4(b), P-5(b), etc. and the Ownership Certificates

of the buildings concerned constructed on those

properties have been produced as Exts.P-3(c),

P-4(c) etc. The complaint of the petitioners is

that the 1^st respondent-Village Officer has refused

to accept basic land tax, in respect of the above

properties from the petitioners and thereupon, the

petitioners had made enquiries by filing requests

under the Right to Information Act to elicit the

ground of rejection and in reply under the RTI

proceedings, the 1^st respondent has now informed as

per Ext.P-6 letter dated 14.08.2018 that the

3^rd respondent-Jama-Ath Committee has raised a

complaint before the Kerala State Wakf Board that

they have now discovered that the properties

belonging to the petitioners as well as the entire

land (2.60 acres), scheduled in Ext.P-1 Purchase

Certificate is included in the deed of Wakf

executed in the year 1919 and therefore, it is

Wakf property etc. Further, enquiries of the

petitioners have also revealed that in the

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proceedings before the Kerala State Wakf Board, the

3^rd respondent (Committee) was instructed to move

the Appellate Authority under Kerala Land Reforms

Act, 1963 to challenge Ext.P-1 Purchase

Certificate, if they so desire and on that basis

the 3^rd

respondent has filed Ext.P-7 appeal

application, which has now been numbered as

A.A.No.67/2018 to challenge the impugned Ext.P-1

Purchase Certificate issued on 1990, after delay of

more than 27 years.

4.

According to the petitioners, to the best

of their knowledge, no orders had been passed by

the Appellate Authority on Ext.P-7 appeal and also

as to whether the 3^rd respondent has filed any

application to condone the long delay in filing the

appeal and whether any orders have been passed on

such delay condonation application, etc. The

petitioners would contend that as long as no

judicial Forum has passed the orders interdicting

the competent revenue officials like the

1^st respondent-Village Officer from accepting the

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basic land tax from the petitioners’ property, the

1^st respondent has no jurisdiction to unil