CHENNAI: Judiciary is not Jesus Christ to carry the cross for the sins committed by bureaucrats, Madras high court said, while ordering Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 respectively as compensation to two petitioners who were made to run from pillar to past for 20 years to get their land records mutated.
Censuring the Dharmapuri and Perambalur district administration for the delay, Justice N Seshasayee observed on Monday that only because of such unjustifiable delays caused by authorities’, courts are burdened with lakhs of litigations. The judge then directed S P Karthikaa, Dharmapuri collector, and P Sri Venkada Priya, Perambalur collector, who had already been summoned during the hearing, to come up with a viable solution for such issues, which are rampant across the state.
The issue pertains to two separate pleas moved by Rathinam and Jayalakshmi seeking direction to the district administration to re-mutate records of the land owned by them.
Rathinam owned about 4 acres of land in Virappanayakkampatti, Harur village, Dharmapuri. The land was notified for acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act 1984 by the Tamil Nadu government in 1987.
In 1988, GO was issued for acquisition of the land. The same was challenged by the petitioner in the high court. On August 21, 2000, the plea was allowed by the court. Though no appeal was made by the state against the order nor fresh acquisition notification issued, the authorities failed to make necessary alterations in the land records in favour of the petitioner for the past 20 years.
Taking serious view of the fact that the authorities failed to respond to various representations made by the petitioner for two decades, the court said, “we have no option but to order compensation to the petitioner for keeping him at bay for 20 years.” The court added that such lack of professionalism at one level affects the judiciary by adding up to the pending cases. When an out of the box solution is found to handle such issues, courts will be relieved of several such litigation. “So that the courts might get adequate time to attend to some important matters rather than litigations like this,” Justice Seshasayee said. Passing similar directions in the plea moved by Jayalakshmi, the court ordered Rs 50,000 compensation to her since the waiting period was 10 years in her case.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/courts-not-christ-to-carry-the-cross-for-sins-of-officials-madras-high-court/articleshow/80244655.cms
