Madras High Court relief for plot owners

Chennai: In a major relief to the owners of unapproved house sites in the state, the Madras high court has directed the registering authorities to register the documents relating to the transfer of ownership of the lands converted as house sites. Such lands had been previously registered without permission for the development of land from the planning authority concerned.

Nearly six months after the court imposed a blanket ban on registration of unapproved layout/ plots, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G.Ramesh and Justice RMT.Teeka Raman modified the order and gave the new directive.

“It is pertinent to note that subsequent to the order of this court dated September 9, 2016, the Tamil Nadu government has brought an amendment to section 22 A of the Registration Act as an exemption to the refusal of registration of certain documents, which provides that the house sites without permission for development of land from planning authority be registered, if it is shown that the same house site has been previously registered as house site. Such being the position, we are inclined to modify the interim order dated September 9, 2016 to the effect that the registering authorities are directed to register the documents relating to the transfer of ownership of the lands converted as house sites, which were previously registered without permission for the development from the planning authority concerned. It is made clear that no documents relating to the transfer of ownership of properties which was not previously registered shall not be registered”, the bench added.

So far as the other unapproved plots/layouts/house sites were concerned, Advocate general R.Muthukumaraswamy informed the court that the state government was bringing a regularisation scheme subject to levy of development charges, as one time measure. It was under circulation and it may take a week or ten days to finalise the same.  

The bench posted to April 11 further hearing of a batch of PILs from activists including Elephant G.Rajendran and others and impleading petitions from developers and individual owners, relating to unapproved plots.

In his petition, Rajendran sought to restrain the authorities from giving approval or permission to convert the agricultural lands into layouts with consequential relief to forbear the authorities from registering unapproved plots and buildings.
When the case came up for hearing on Tuesday, the AG, R.Muthukumaraswamy, submitted that so far as unapproved plots were concerned, the government is taking a policy decision and bringing a scheme to regularise such properties subject to levy of development charges, including laying of roads. “It is under circulation. The government may require a week or 10 days time to finalise the same”.