Legislation Against Land Grabbing "Need Of The Hour": Madras High Court

The Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to look into the structural corruption in the matter of grabbing of government lands.

The Madras High Court on Monday expressed concern over grabbing of government lands and said a legislation against it was the need of the hour. The court also directed the Tamil Nadu government to look into the structural corruption in the matter of grabbing of government lands, consider and enact suitable law to deal with the offences, so as to prevent such illegal acts.

Justice S M Subramaniam gave the directive while rejecting a plea from M/s Hotel Saravana Bhavan, which sought a direction to the authorities to grant "patta" for 3.45 acres of land situated in front of the Central Bus Stand at Koyembedu here for constructing a shopping mall and hyper market with an investment of Rs 1,575 crore. It contended the land which was given to it by the previous AIADMK government just before the 2021 Assembly election, was cancelled by the present DMK government last year.

The judge said the facts established and the documents produced by the respective parties to the case on hand would be sufficient enough to arrive at an inevitable conclusion that the petitioner was not entitled for grant of patta. The petitioner was an encroacher of the government land who has grabbed it for unjust gains in a systematic manner, more specifically with the connivance of the government officials in support of few private individuals who all were influential people in the society, the judge added.