The Madras High Court has brought the curtains down on special courts that were established across the State in 2011, during the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) regime led by the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, for exclusively trying cases of land grabbing.
Issuing an official memorandum, the High Court’s Registrar General P. Dhanabal has ordered transfer of all such cases from the special courts to the jurisdictional magistrate courts since the Supreme Court had on May 4 this year upheld the quashing of a 2011 Government Order.
Immediately, after returning to power in 2011, Jayalalithaa issued a Government Order (G.O.) on July 28, 2011 for formation of 36 Anti Land Grabbing Special Cells in the police department with one cell each at the State police headquarters, seven police commissionerates and 28 districts.
Another G.O. was issued on August 1, 2011 for constitution of 25 special courts in the State for exclusive trial of land grabbing cases and a third G.O. was issued on August 11, 2011 for transferring all pending land grabbing cases from the jurisdictional magistrate courts to the special courts.
On being challenged, the First Division Bench of the High Court quashed the G.Os on February 10, 2015 on the ground that ‘land grabbing’ had not been defined and therefore, it might give unfettered powers to the police officers to bring any case under the category and get it transferred to the special court.
The Bench, however, granted liberty to the State government to enact a special law on the lines of the Andhra Pradesh Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act of 1982. The State took the High Court’s judgement on appeal and obtained an interim stay leading to the continuation of the special courts all along.
However, on May 4 this year, the Supreme Court dismissed the State appeal and upheld the 2015 verdict of the High Court. Therefore, the High Court’s Registrar General had now instructed the Principal District Judges to ensure that the land grab cases get re-transferred from special courts to the magistrate courts.
