The dispute concerns the grant of a certificate of purchase by the Land Tribunal in SMC.No.1217/1976 which takes in 48 cents of land with a building thereon in R.S.No.146/11 in Feroke Village. The said extent of land lie contiguous to the property where Government Ganapath Vocational Higher Secondary School, Feroke earlier functioned. The petitioners as owners of 48 cents of land with a building moved the Government seeking restoration of possession on the ground that the School has since been shifted. The Government by order No. GO (RT) 3676/96/G.Edn. dated 14.11.1996 ordered to return the land and building to the petitioners. 2. The Government by letter No.59895/M3/96/G.Edn. dated 22.11.1996 however stayed the implementation of the order dated 14.11.1996. This was the subject matter of OP.No.19050/1996 and WA.No.402/1997 on the file of this Court wherein the order dated 22.11.1996 was quashed. The Government again by order GO (RT) 3787/97/G.Edn. dated 1.11.1997 directed the implementation of the order dated 14.11.1996. The orders dated 14.11.1996 and 1.11.1997 have become final which implies that 48 cents of land with the building is to be restored to the petitioners. The parties are at variance as to whether actual delivery of possession has been effected or not even though the finality of the order is conceded.
3. It appears that the Parent Teachers Association of the School moved the Government for cancellation of the orders dated 14.11.1996 and 1.11.1997 directing restoration of possession. The Government thereupon issued a notice of hearing dated 6.8.1998 to the petitioners preceded by another order dated 2.12.1997 directing the earlier orders to be kept in abeyance. (The notice of hearing dated 6.8.1998 and the preceding order dated 2.12.1997 had been marked as Exts.P14 and P15 in OP.No.16274/1998 wherein it were questioned). The appeal therefrom as WA.No.340/2000 was disposed of along with W.P.(C) No.2668/2004 by a Division Bench of this Court. The judgment therein dated 13.12.2005 concluded as follows:-
“18. Accordingly, we dispose of the above cases as follows:
(a) Ext.P6 in W.P (C) No.2668/2004 is quashed and the matter is remanded to the Appellate Authority (Land Reforms), Kannur for fresh disposal in accordance with law, after affording an opportunity of hearing to the legal heirs of later P.K.Santhakumary and the 3rd respondent in the writ petition.
W.P (C) No.2668/2004 is allowed to the above extent.
(b) The judgment in O.P.No.16274/1998 impugned in W.A.No.340/2000 is set aside. Exts.P14 and P15 are quashed holding that the Government has no power to interfere with the ownership and possession of the 48 cents of land in RS.No.146/11 in Feroke Village which is in the absolute ownership and possession of the 1st appellant and on her death by the other appellants as her legal heirs. W.A.No.340/2000 is allowed as above.” (emphasis supplied) The Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No.5853/2006 filed by the State against the judgment of the Division Bench was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 10.4.2006.
4. It necessarily follows that 48 cents of land with a building thereon in R.S.No.146/11 in Feroke Village no longer could be termed as a school property. The said extent falls out of the province of the administration of the school over which the Parent Teachers Association may have a say. The Parent Teachers Association is a total stranger as far as the said extent of land which has already been directed to be restored possession of to the petitioners. I should note that the judgment in the earlier writ petitions and the writ appeal were rendered with the Parent Teachers Association on the party array. The Parent Teachers Association has therefore no locus standi to challenge the order granting a certificate of purchase in regard to the extent of 48 cents in R.S.No.146/11.
5. True it is that the certificate of purchase allegedly takes in 90 cents of land in that Re-survey number in the Feroke Village. But the Parent Teachers Association has no case that the remaining extent of 42 cents is taken in by the school compound and the petitioners maintain that the remaining extent stands alienated to third parties. The Parent Teachers Association is therefore not a person aggrieved entitled to maintain an appeal under Section 102 of the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963. Whether the certificate of purchase has been obtained fraudulently or not by the petitioners can be challenged by any person interested before the Civil Court [See Sree Karikad Devaswom v. Wandoor Jupiter Chits (P) Ltd. (1980 KLT 760)].
6. The upshot of the discussion is that there was no necessity for the appellate authority in the instant case to set aside the order of the Land Tribunal and remit the matter for de novo consideration. The impugned order of the Appellate Authority, Kannur in A.A.No.73/99 is accordingly set aside.
The Civil Revision Petition is allowed. No costs.
Sd/-
V.CHITAMBARESH, Judge.
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