The Madras High Court recently held that the State, as a sovereign authority, is the owner of Natham lands and nobody can claim ownership to the same [The Tahsildar, Sankarapuram, Kallakurichi District v Mr T Elumalai and Ors]..Natham land is a parcel of land on which houses of a village may be built. It is popularly believed that they do not usually belong to anyone. .However, a Division Bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and K Rajasekar has observed that no one can occupy a land, including Natham land, and declare himself/herself to be the owner as against the rights of other subjects under the sovereign authority."The corollary is that an individual's claim of right by mere occupation would defeat the sovereign rights of the 'State' and the rights of all other citizens in rem over the land so occupied. Ownership, including the right to possess, control and use, can be conferred and recognised only by the sovereign power under the authority of law. Otherwise, such occupation of land, including Natham land in the present case, has no legal right and it is illegal," the Court said.The Court also said there cannot be any land without an owner."There cannot be any land within the territory of Union of India without an owner. The 'State', as a sovereign authority, is the owner of all lands declared under Section 2 of the Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act, 1905, viz. List II Entry 18 of the Constitution of India."Notably, the Bench relied on the two full bench decisions of 1903 and 1916 to come to this conclusion..The Division Bench rendered these findings while setting aside an order of the single-judge who had directed the revenue authorities in the Kallakuruchi district to grant ownership of a parcel of Natham land to a man named T Elumalai. The local Tehsildar had argued that the ownership right cannot be given to the man because these lands are meant for landless people and the man already owns a house and five acres of property. However, the single-judge had rejected the contention. .After considering the case, the Division Bench held that the title rights of Natham lands cannot be conferred upon an encroacher. “In the event of conferring right, title or ownership of natham lands, merely based on voluntary occupation of a person or to an encroacher, then on account of sky-rocketing of land value, few powerful greedy individuals alone will illegally occupy natham lands for unjust personal gains,” the Bench said. The Court added that the land is meant for dwelling houses and is to be regulated by the government. “The land is to be allotted evenly to the landless poor people based on eligibility criteria contemplated under RSO 21 [Revenue Standing Order 21].”Hence, it allowed the government's appeal and set aside the single judge’s order. .Additional Advocate General R Ramanlaal and Additional Government Pleader T Arun Kumar appeared for the State government. Advocate M Ganesan represented T Elumalai.Standing Counsel S Swami Subramaniam appeared for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. .[Read Judgment]
