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Judgment
T.R. Ramachandran Nair, J.—There are 22 petitioners herein who have joined together to claim assignment of land in Chinnakanal village in Idukki District. This writ petition is filed claiming that they are adivasies. Various details have been averred in the writ petition to show that they are entitled for such assignment. Ext. P12 order is specifically under challenge also. In Ext. P12 order, the view taken is that the assignment applications cannot be considered as the land sought for is given on lease to the Hindustan News Print Ltd. and many of the parties are encroachers also. This Court had the advantage of the affidavit filed by the Secretary to the Government along with the application for extension of time. It is averred in paragraph 2 therein that in the meeting convened by the then Chief Minister on 16.10.2001, it was decided to allot land to an extent of not less than 5 acres to adivasies, in places like Sugandhagiri, Pookode etc. where land is available and to allot land not less than 1 Acre and upto 5 Acres wherever possible to adivasies who are landless/in possession of land less than 1 Acre. The Government Order allotting land in Pookode and Sugandhagiri have been mentioned in the said paragraph.
In paragraph 3 of the affidavit, it is mentioned that in the Government letter dated 12.11.2002 namely, Ext. P2, the Government informed the petitioner that it was decided to distribute 1490 Acres of land in Chinnakkanal village in Udumbanchola Taluk to adivasies. When steps were initiated for assignment, only 810 Acres of land could be identified as suitable for inhabitation and the same was earmarked for distribution to tribes and assignment was done accordingly. The balance land in Sy. No. 34/1, 197/1 of Chinnakkanal village are already in possession of the Patta holders under Kerala Land Assignment Rules, statutory authorities such as KSEB, HNL on lease basis, Muthuvan Settlement and a limited number of encroachers. It is stated that no land is remaining in those survey numbers for assignment to tribes and some of the land are covered with steep rocks and some others are the habitats of wild elephants. It is further averred that the Government, as per G.O. (P) No. 63/01/SCSTDD dated 09.11.2001, constituted TRDM for allotment of land and over all development of STs who are landless or in possession of land less than 1 Acre and the guidelines for selection of beneficiaries of TRDM have been stipulated as per G.O.(P) No. 41/02/SCSTDD dated 20.07.2002 and the said Government Orders have been placed on record as Exts. A(1) and A(2). It is also stated that the petitioners are not beneficiaries of TRDM and that the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th and 17th petitioners belong to Roman Catholic Syrian Christian Community, which is a forward community and not tribal community. The 3rd, 8th and 10th petitioners together possess almost 3= Ares of non Patta land in Vathikudy village. The 8th petitioner is in possession of certain non patta land in Vathikudy village and he is a beneficiary of EMS Housing Scheme launched by the Government. The 1st, 5th, 9th and 19th petitioners are also known to be possessing patta land in Kanjikuzhy village of Thodupuzha Taluk. The 19th petitioner possesses 0.37.46 hectares of land in Sy. No. 242/10, Block No. 48, Thandapper No. 1720 in Kanjikuzhy village. He also has 0.07.94 hectares of land in Sy. No. 175/1. He was also granted sanction for selling 0.1320 hectares of tribal land in Sy. No. 175/1 under KST Act 1999, as per proceedings No. 3570/C8/11 dated 26.02.2011. At that time the applicant namely, father of the 1st petitioner had given an affidavit that, he will not make any further claim for land. The 1st petitioner has inherited right on the properties of her father. It is averred in paragraph 5 as follows:
... However as no land suitable for assignment is available in Idukki, Government will have to take a policy decision for distribution of land to landless/eligible STs of Idukki district for which Government need an extended time of six more months....
The petitioners have filed a reply producing Ext. P15 series (corrected as Ext. P16 series) stated to be the applications filed by some of the petitioners who are adivasies before the Tribal Resettlement and Development Mission. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the said applications have been forwarded to the Project Director, Integrated Tribal Development Project, Idukki who in turn has forwarded the same to the Site Manager, Tribal Resettlement and Development Mission, Munnar. Learned Special Government Pleader submits that the applications of the persons other than the tribal people cannot be directed to be considered at this stage. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners 1, 2, 5, 7, 9 and 19 are adivasies, the petitioners 12, 13, 15 and 22 belong to Scheduled Caste community, the 14th petitioner belongs to OBC, the petitioners 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 17 and 21 are Syrian Christians and the 16th petitioner is an Ezhava. This Court can consider only the claim of adivasies for allotment of land and the other petitioners cannot claim the benefit of any scheme available for adivasies.
Therefore, as far as the petitioners who belong to adivasies are concerned, appropriate authorities will conduct due enquiries and if they are eligible, steps will be finalised for allotment of land wherever it is available and ordered to be assigned by the Government. Ext. P16 applications accordingly will be considered expeditiously and such petitioners who belong to adivasies will be informed about the result of the same.
This writ petition is disposed of as above.