Construction of court on grazing land challenged

The petitioner P Dakshinamoorthi had contended that as a village assistant serving for the past three decades he is fully conversant with the affairs of Vanur and surrounding villages where there is a ‘mandhaiveli’ a cattle grazing ground from time immemorial.

But a couple of months ago, Dakshinamoorthi, who has now retired, came to know that there was a proposal to change the character of the land and transfer the same to some other department.

Thereafter, he came to know that the Tamil Nadu government had already taken a decision to convert the said grazing land into some other land and transfer the same to Madras High Court for the purpose of housing the District Munsif’s Court, Vanur. Based on this, he made a representation to the district collector, Villupuram District and Tahsildar, Vanur to neither convert nor transfer the said ‘Mandhaiveli Poramboke’ land to the extent of 0.065 acres.

But, despite emphasizing that ‘Mandhaiveli Poramboke’ land is an asset of the village and that the land cannot be converted for any purpose without a public hearing, the authorities have failed to respond.

Advocate M Radhakrishnan appearing for the petitioner submitted that Government Order dated May 28, 2007 has clearly laid down that ‘Mandhaiveli Poramboke’ lands should neither be transferred to other departments nor allotted for any other purpose.

Moreover, the GO says that in the event of there being any necessity to convert a grazing land the concerned district collector should select the same extent of alternative land to be used as ‘Mandhaiveli Poramboke’ land before such conversion. The GO also says that such conversion should be permitted by the concerned villages panchayats, he said.

However, a division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam before whom the plea came up for hearing directed the petitioner to file an additional affidavit indicating whether there are any other ‘Mandhaiveli Poramboke’ land in the area and the extent of encroachment with supporting documents. The plea has been posted for further hearing to January 09, 2019.