Newdelhi: The Supreme Court has upheld the cancellation of a ryotwari patta granted for land recorded as a government water body in Tamil Nadu. A bench of Justices SVN Bhatti and NV Anjaria delivered the judgment, directing the state government to allot a suitable alternative site to the owners of 20 flats prior to demolishing their apartment buildings.
A ryotwari patta is an official revenue and land record issued to an individual cultivator, certifying the right to occupy and cultivate a specific piece of land while paying land tax directly to the government. Justice Bhatti, writing the judgment for the bench, noted that the flat owners had been led to believe through official orders and revenue records that the state government held no interest in the land.
The court emphasized that ordering the demolition of the flats without assessing the hardship faced by the owners or their independent legal remedies against the original land owner and developer would cause irreparable financial injury and leave families homeless. To address this hardship without violating Section 14-A of the Tamil Nadu Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948, the bench directed the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu and the District Collector of Tiruvallur to allot a vacant, commensurate site to the flat owners represented by the society, preferably within six months, before proceeding with the demolition of the 0.22-acre constructed area.
The verdict dismissed three civil appeals filed by a flat owner and Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank Ltd., which had challenged the cancellation of the patta and the subsequent orders to restore the land as a water body. The litigation centered on a survey number at Thirumullaivoyal village in Tiruvallur district, which was documented in the 1911 resettlement register as a government poramboke tank known as Kanakkan Kuttai.
The disputed property formed part of a larger 1.68-acre plot. The controversy arose after the Tiruvallur district revenue officer issued a ryotwari patta for 0.72 acres of the land to P Ramadoss in January 2011. The site was subsequently involved in property transactions and development, resulting in the construction of 20 residential flats, alongside credit facilities of Rs 3.40 crore extended by Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank against a mortgage over the land.
In December 2019, the commissioner of land administration cancelled the patta after determining it had been issued in violation of relevant legal provisions. The Madras High Court subsequently affirmed that cancellation, ordering the removal of unauthorized structures and the restoration of the water body.
In dismissing the appeals, the Supreme Court pointed out that historical revenue records explicitly classified the location as a tank and government poramboke rather than ryoti land eligible for a patta grant. The court concluded that the appellants failed to demonstrate that the property qualified for a patta under the 1948 Act, thereby affirming the restoration of the water body while securing alternative land for the flat owners.