No rights on Adi Dravidar Natham land: MHC warns TN

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday quashed the order issued by the Tahsildar to clear the encroachment in the Adi Dravidar Natham land in Poovirunthavalli revenue village under section 7 of the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act, 1905 for the Chennai Metro Rail Limited project. It was decided to acquire 456 sq. mts of land in Poovirunthavalli for the CMRL project.

The Tahsildar ordered five people, including one Mr A Sacractice, to evict the house which is the Adi Dravdar Natham land. Condemning the move of Tahsildar, all five including A Sacractice moved Madras High Court seeking to quash the Tahsildar's order.

When this came for the hearing before the Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, the counsel for the petitioner MS Soundara Rajan argued that the Adi Dravidar Natham land is not the government land and that no order can be issued under section 7 of the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act, 1905 to evict people.

However, as the land is needed for public use, the petitioner also informed that they are ready to provide the land if they get appropriate compensation.

The Solicitor General R Shanmuga Sundaram who appeared for the State government and the CMRL argued that, even though the said land is an Adi Dravidar Natham land, No 'Patta' were given to the petitioners and the petitioners can only build the houses on the land, but they had built the shops for commercial purposes and were earning up to Rs.70,000 as rent. Further, he informed that compensation can be given only for the buildings built on the Natham land and no compensation will be given for the land.

Observing this, the bench quashed the order issued by the Tahsildar to evict people from Adi Dravidar Natham land, stating that the government has no rights on the Adi Dravidar Natham land and therefore could not evict the people living on the land under section 7 of the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act, 1905.

On the other hand, since the petitioners have stated that they are ready to provide the land for the CMRL project, the bench ordered that the government and CMRL can acquire the land by paying appropriate compensation and the government can take over the land by following the legal provisions.