The special court for land-grabbing cases will lose jurisdiction to entertain a complaint when the landowners are put in possession of the land through a lawfully registered sale deed, as such issues would require adjudication as “a pure and simple suit for title” by the competent courts, said the High Court of Karnataka.
A Division Bench comprising Justice G. Narendar and Justice Vijaykumar A. Patil made these observations while hearing a petition filed by M.A. Mohammed Sanaullah and others from Devanahalli near Bengaluru.
The petitioners had questioned the legality of the proceedings initiated by the Forest Department in 2020 before the special court for land-grabbing cases under the provisions of the Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act for allegedly grabbing forest lands.
However, the High Court noted that a suit, filed by the Forest Department earlier seeking permanent injunction against the petitioners, was dismissed by the courts in Karnataka, and the apex court had remanded the suit back to the civil court for a decision afresh after affording due opportunity of leading evidence to the department.
While pointing that petitioners were in lawful possession of the disputed lands though a sale deed registered in 1977 and the sale in favour of the petitioners was preceded by four earlier sale deeds and an order of grant by the State, the Bench observed that “the special court has gone amiss and failed to consider this issue.”
Prima facie reading of the definition of ‘land grabbing’, the Bench observed, would require a conscious act on the part of the land grabber in attempting to inject himself into the land or inject on to the land his nominee, be that under whatever guise, as a tenancy, lessee, etc.
“Thus, we are of the prima facie opinion that the possession of the petitioners even assuming for argument sake that the lands are indeed lands of the forest, the same would not constitute an act of land grabbing and the same is required to be adjudicated as a pure and simple title suit,” the Bench observed.
While setting aside the special court’s February 2023 order of taking cognisance against the petitioners, the Bench asked the special court to to formulate an issue regarding maintainability of the complaint and examine its jurisdiction to adjudicate the case based on the High Court’s observations.
