Land registration ban continues in TN

The first Bench of Madras High Court has once again refused to vacate its earlier interim order dated September 9, 2016 restraining the Registration department from registering properties on farm land, unauthorised layouts and water bodies.

The ban on registration of unapproved properties was on Monday extended till 27 February. The government has been given time till that period to come out with regulations for plots and buildings that don't have approval.

The date was extended following a request by the State government lawyer asking for more time.

Though the petitioners, comprising mostly real estate developers, argued about the plight of common people because of this ban, the judge who heard the case, said, "Only the government can take forward this issue. Unless and until they find a solution, the High Court cannot proceed further. Only after they take some stringent measures, the court will decide its judgement on this issue."

When the PIL from ‘Elephant’ K Rajendran, as well as a batch of petitions and impleading petitions from several real estate developers and others to vacate the stay came up before the Bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice M Sundar on Monday, Advocate-General R Muthukumaraswamy requested the judges to grant some more time to enable the government to finalise the rules to address the issue.

Any indulgence on this score or relaxation would take the matter back to square one, the Bench said when the petitioners insisted the Bench relax the stay.