The Madras High Court Bench here has brought to an end an 11-year-old legal battle waged by two individuals who wanted to restrain Mela Sankaran Kuzhi Panchayat in Kanyakumari district from naming a locality within its jurisdiction as ‘Thoppur.’
Dismissing a second appeal filed by the duo Kumaresan and K. Dharmalingam, Justice P.R. Shivakumar held that individuals, who do not represent the general public, have no locus standi to question a common name assigned to a particular locality by the local body concerned.
He pointed out that the appellants had initially filed a civil suit before an Additional District Munsif Court in Nagercoil in 2004 seeking an injunction restraining the panchayat from using any name other than Mela Sankaran Kuzhi for a locality within its jurisdiction.
They wanted a direction to the panchayat to refrain from erecting name boards or pasting posters referring to the locality as either ‘Thoppur’ or by any name other than Mela Sankaran Kuzhi. They also sought for an order to remove boards that had been erected already.
The suit was dismissed on merits in 2007. Thereafter, they took the matter on appeal to the Principal Subordinate Court in Nagecoil. The first appellate court too dealt with the matter on merits and confirmed the Munsif’s order in 2009 leading to the present second appeal.
Stating that the lower courts could have dismissed the suit on the ground of maintainability itself, Mr. Justice Shivakumar said: “When a village or any part carved out from the village is said to be given a specific name, individuals cannot question such an act on the part of the Revenue Department.
“Even if the residents of a particular area want to give a specific name to their area and seek the approval for such naming and incorporation of such a name in the revenue records, individuals cannot question it and challenge the same before the civil court.
“If at all they want to represent the public of the said village in general to oppose any such move, they could very well move the local body for passing a resolution either in favour or against the change of name of the village or assigning of name for a particular area,” he observed.
The judge went on to add: “If some residents of a particular area or ward give their area a name of an individual or a leader or prominent person of a particular community or religion, the same may be questioned by individuals like the appellants herein.
“However, in case of assignment of a common name that does not refer to any race, caste or religion, they have to approach competent authorities for necessary orders.”
