The Madras High Court has called for a status report from the Nilgiris district administration with respect to the steps initiated by it to resume 26.12 cents of land in Jagadha village, Kotagiri Taluk from film producer and actor Pooja Bhatt.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy called for the status report due to conflicting claims made by State Government Pleader (SGP) P. Muthukumar and Ms. Bhatt’s counsel Karthik Seshadri with respect to the resumption.
While the SGP claimed the land had been resumed by the Kotagiri Taluk Tahsildar from the actor, the latter’s counsel stoutly denied the claim and contended that she continued to be in possession and enjoyment of the property.
After recording their submissions, the judges called for a status report from the official respondents by November 8, and ordered that officers and the actor must maintain status quo, as on date, until the next date of hearing of the case.
The judges passed similar orders on yet another writ appeal filed by adjoining land owner Pingle Ramesh Reddy represented by senior counsel Abdul Saleem. They further ordered the tagging of all connected appeals to be heard together next week.
Land assigned to SC resident
The issue relates to one acre of government land assigned to Scheduled Caste resident P. Kuppan (since dead), under the category of ‘landless poor’, for cultivation on August 9, 1978. The assignment condition mandated that he not alienate the land for 10 years.
However, officials claimed that in violation of the condition, Kuppan executed a power of attorney in favour of an individual C.O. Subramani in 1986 and the latter used it to sell the land to another individual, C.O. Ramasamy in October 1988. Thereafter, the land changed hands and Ms. Bhatt bought part of it in 1999.
Similarly, Mr. Reddy’s mother purchased 27 cents in 1999 and assigned 13.84 cents in his favour by way of a gift deed in 2010.
However, on March 21, 2016 the Kotagiri Taluk Tahsildar passed an order for resumption of the land citing violation of the assignment conditions.
Ms. Bhatt and others filed writ petitions in 2017 challenging the Tahsildar’s order. After six years, Justice S.M. Subramaniam of the High Court dismissed all those writ petitions this year and directed the Nilgiris Collector to resume similar government properties leading to the present writ appeals.
