Harrisons case verdict: Land reform legislations become ineffectual

Pathanamthitta: With the Supreme Court also having dismissed the contentions of Kerala government, four major legislations that formerd the corner stones of the state regarding land reforms including the Land Reforms Act, look like becoming irrelevant.

The legislations that lose their value are the 1955 law Rights of dioceses acquisition Act, Kerala Land Conservancy Act 1957, Land Reforms Act 1963, and Kerala Grants and Lease (Modification of Rights) Act 1980, passed by the state assembly. With this, the state will move to a situation when existing laws become inadequate to evict the encroachments on government land.

For eviction on encroachments on government land, including those in Munnar, the government has been invoking Land Conservancy Act. But citing the Harrisons case, the government moves can be resisted supported by its judgment. Legal experts point out that what the government is going to do to surmount this will become crucial in such cases in future.

Revenue Special Office MG Rajamanikyam had submitted a report to the government saying that when the High Court rejected the government's contentions in the Harrisons case, a state of things would emerge where the state government will be in no position, on the strength of existing laws, to recover land appropriated by any body with the help of forged documents and revenue records.

As per Section 72(1) of Land Reforms Act that came into force on 1 April 1964, foreign companies and citizens have the right to possess land, purchase land from owners and procure title. The report mentions that the court order gives room for the foreign companies to argue that they too have the same right.

Going by this, thousands of British companies and citizens who had abandoned the landed property that existed in the state, can ask for restoring their land back to them and can approach the land tribunals for this. Rajamanikyam had in his report highlighted the possibility of their getting a chance for it. Now that the High Court order has been ratified by the Supreme Court, the apprehension cited by Rajamanikyam is becoming true.

Along with this, Company Law passed by Parliament in 1956 and Foreign Exchange Restriction Act (FERA) 1973, also may become inapplicable in the case of land encroachments by foreign companies. The way out to protect the intersts of the state will solely be new legislation, Susheela Bhatt former government pleader who had appeared for the government in the land cases told Madhyamam.

In the report submitted on 4 June 2016, Rajamanikyam had stated that new laws will have to be passed for takeover of land if the erstwhile British companies had not legally handed over such land to its current possessors.