HC orders tahsildar suspended for fraud

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the revenue department to suspend Velachery tahsildar and initiate disciplinary action against him for having issued patta to a vacant site earmarked for a community hall.

Justice S Vaidyanathan passed the order while dismissing two separate pleas moved by N Raman and SVN Natarajan.

While Raman challenged an order of the authorities

rejecting his request for granting planning permission to the site, Natarajan sought a direction to the authorities not to interfere with his possession of the property.

However, during the hearing, it came to light that the tahsildar issued patta to the property which had been earmarked as reserved for a community hall in spite of instructions from his superiors not to do so.

“It was clear that the petitioners were trying to usurp the properties in question meant for community hall. Merely because the petitioner paid the statutory taxes for years, and that the properties in question were kept as vacant sites, it cannot be a ground to grant the relief sought for by the petitioners,” the judge said.

In Tamil Nadu, there is more than one document for a particular property duly shown as registered. Unless there is collusion between the land grabbers and the persons at the sub-registrar office including the sub-registrar, these fraudulent documents cannot be created, he added.

Pressing for strict action against such officials, the judge said the authority concerned shall preferably pass an order of dismissal from service against the tahsildar, who was in charge at that time.