Advocate challenged amendment in land ceiling rules

A lawyer challenged a government order to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court and later amendments made to the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Limitation of Limitation on Land). This violates the basic objectives envisaged in the Tamil Nadu Land Ceiling Act.

Petitioner, M. of Tirunelveli. Suresh said that the Act was enacted with the social purpose of distributing land to landless persons and paved the way for equal distribution among citizens. However, the government order destroys the general provisions of the Act, he said.

It dilutes the power vested with the authorized authorities, which under the Act, is the power to declare the illegal holding of land by any person in accordance with the Act. He said that as per the government order, the parameters fixed for consideration were also unclear before allowing the sale of additional land.

The order of the government cannot affect the Act, the petitioner said and sought to repeal the amendments made to the GO and the rules. A division bench of Justices MM Sundaresh and S Ananthi observed that any action against the GO would be subject to the outcome of the petition.