The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Two NGOs move court over pleas relating to village lands

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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Two NGOs move court over pleas relating to village lands

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Two organisations have moved the Madras High Court seeking to implead themselves in petitions relating to lands in Kaverirajapuram in Tiruttani taluk of Tiruvallur district.

Human Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation, represented by its director, Ossie Fernandes, and Henri Tiphagne, executive director, People’s Watch, Madurai, in their petitions stated that petitioners J. Munirathinam, J. Sentharamma, M. Kaanthamma, G. Munirathinam and S. Jayamma, were not bona fide claimants and their alleged possession of lands which were part of the ‘anadeenam’ lands in the village was a falsehood.

The petitioners had suppressed relevant material facts. No evidence of possession had been placed before the court.

The organisations said that recently they came to know from media reports and other sources, of human rights violations by a High Court Judge at Kaverirajapuram.

On enquiry, they learnt that Justice P.D. Dinakaran, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, and his family members owned vast tracts of land in Kaverirajapuram village which had been purchased over the last decade or so. However, unfortunately, they had also illegally occupied and encroached upon hundreds of acres of government ‘poromboke’ and ‘anadeenam’ lands and common village property like grazing lands, streams and other waterbodies. This in turn had severely affected the livelihood of Dalits and the landless poor of Kaverirajapuram.

Concerned about the human rights violations, the representatives of the two organisations and of 10 other organisations working for the welfare of Dalits, women and the poor, went on a fact-finding enquiry and found that the allegations of encroachments by the judge were true. Hence, a representation dated September 28 was sent to the Chief Justice of India and the Supreme Court Collegium.

Narrating the sequence of events, the organisations said there appeared to be a complete curfew in the area and free movement had been restricted. The only course open to them was to have their concerns expressed before the court through the organisations.

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