HC declines to vacate its order on land issue

The Madras High Court today declined to vacate its order banning registration of plots and houses, whose layout had not been approved, and conversion of agricultural land for non-farming purposes in an unplanned manner in Tamil Nadu.
The court on September eight last year, while hearing a PIL, had banned such registration and conversion of agricultural land for non-farming purposes.
The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sundar declined to vacate the order while hearing a batch of impleading petitions filed by various developers and individuals seeking relaxation of the order.
The bench also directed the government to find a comprehensive solution to address the menace of discriminate conversion of agricultural lands into housing plots and posted the case for further hearing to February 27.

When Advocate General R Muthukumaraswamy requested for some more time to enable the government to finalise the rules to address the issue, the court said, "It should not be a piece meal exercise. A comprehensive solution is what is needed now."
Rejecting the pleas of some of the counsel representing developers and land owners for relaxation ofthe ban at least for the buildings already constructed on unapproved layouts, it said, "Any indulgence on this score would take the matter back to square one.