HC for registration of housing plots converted from agi land

Madras High Court today made it clear that registration of housing plots converted from agricultural land should be strictly as per the Tamil Nadu Regularisation of Unapproved Layouts and Plot rules, 2017.
It should also be in accordance with 'Tamil Nadu Change of Land Use (From Agriculture to Non-Agriculture purposes in Non-Planning Areas) Rules 2017 and Section 22A of the Registration Act, 1908, the court said.
A vacation bench,comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and M Sundar gave the order on a batch of petitions seeking to restrain registration of agricultural land into housing plots.
Passing interim orders on the petitions, it said Section 22 A was not in force and there were no rules in place when the September 9, 2016 interim order restrained the registering authority from registering unapproved plots.

Even after its enforcement when the interim orders were passed on October 21, 2016, March 21 and March 28 of this year, no rules had been framed, it said.
These were since done and considering that there is a statutory provision now in force, the plots should be registered under the rules mentioned, the court said.

It said registrations of house plots in unapproved areas made after its interim order restraining registration of such plots after September 9, 2016 until March 28 and between March 21 to date in violation of its order are prima facie null in the eye of the law.

Those plots registered while the interim orders were in force shall not be registered until further orders, it said.
"The Tamil Nadu Regularisation of Unapproved Layouts and Plots rules, 2017 exempting unapproved plots sold on or before October 20, 2016 from the provisions of Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971, is in excess of rule making powers conferred under Section 122 of the Act and the above shall not be given effect to," the bench said.
It then posted the matter for further hearing to June 14.
On May 4, the court was informed that as many as 9,760 unapproved plots and house sites converted from agricultural land had been registered in Tamil Nadu from September 9, 2016 till March 28 despite a blanket ban.

The Inspector General of Registration had submitted that the total number of documents registered after the ban not to register any unapproved plots by the Court on September 9, 2016 till March 28 in all 578 sub-registrar offices was 8,81,953.
On March 28, the First Bench headed by the then Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh had modified the blanket ban on registration, passed on September 9, 2016, saying transfer of ownership of already registered unapproved properties could be permitted, subject to the final outcome of the PIL.
On April 21, it had directed the authorities to furnish details of properties registered illegally from September 9 till March 28, 2017

This directionfollowed a charge from the petitioners that Registrars in connivance with influential politicians and realtors, had registered documents numbering about four lakh illegally fromSeptember 9last year.