Madras High Court revokes sales ban on illegal housing plots on agriculture lands..!

Madras High Court revokes sales ban on illegal housing plots on agriculture lands..!

The Madras High Court on March 29, 2017 relaxed the blanket stay order relating to registration of property on unapproved layouts, waterways and water bodies and agricultural lands.

Modifying the court’s earlier order dated September 9, 2016, the first bench of Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice R M T Teekka Raman said the registering authorities may register documents relating to transfer of ownership of lands converted as house sites, which were earlier registered without the permission from the planning authority, concerned.

The bench, however, made it clear that no document relating to transfer of ownership of the property, which were not previously registered, shall be registered.

Earlier, Advocate-General R Muthukumaraswamy told the judges that the State government has taken a policy decision to regularise the unapproved plots. 

The government needs a week’s time to finalise it.

In the meantime, the government may be permitted to register the documents pertaining to house sites, which were already registered.

The bench also noted that subsequent to the (interim) order of the court dated September 9, 2016, the  government had brought an amendment to Section 22 A of the Registration (Tamil Nadu Amendment Act) Act 2008 on October 20, 2016. It granted exemption to the refusal of registration of certain documents, which provides that the house sites without permission from the planning authority be registered if it is shown that the same site has been previously registered as a house site.

The bench said that it was inclined to modify the interim order to the effect that the registering authorities are permitted to register the documents relating to the transfer of ownership of the lands converted as house sites, which were previously registered without the permission of the development from the planning authority concerned.

The matter has been adjourned to April 11, 2017.

Since September 9, 2016, all forms of sale, resale and registration of unapproved plots and layouts had been put on hold in the State since the court had imposed the blanket ban on such transactions.

The earlier first bench headed by the then Chief Justice S K Kaul, while passing interim orders on a PIL from Elephant G Rajendran, had granted the interim stay.

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