A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday allowed a State government’s appeal pending since 2017 and set aside a 2015 direction issued by a single judge to the Chengalpattu Tahsildar to make necessary changes in the village and taluk records that Mayajaal Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. owns two acres of land at Kanathur Reddi Kuppam on East Coast Road.
The Bench of Justices T. Raja and K. Kumaresh Babu agreed with Additional Advocate General V. Arun that it was a classic case where a private entity had attempted to claim ownership over valuable government land with the active collusion of individuals who held the posts of Assistant Settlement Officer and Chengalpattu Tahsildar in the past.
The judges pointed out that Kanathur Reddi Kuppam was taken over under the Tamil Nadu Estates (Abolition & Conversion into Ryotwari) Act of 1948, by a notification issued on March 7, 1957. Thereafter, settlement proceedings were initiated in 1959. Survey number 34 in the village was spread over 5.85 acres and it was subdivided into two.
