Plea of Muthuramalinga Thevar Memorial caretaker disposed of

Petitioner had sought reclassification of the land as grama natham land

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has disposed of a petition filed in 2012 by N. Gandhi Meenal, caretaker of Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar Memorial, who sought a direction to the authorities to reclassify the land from government poramboke to grama natham land and grant patta in her favour.

The petitioner said the residential house and the land in the survey number in Pasumpon was the birthplace of freedom fighter Muthuramalinga Thevar. The house was converted into a memorial and regular pujas and rituals were being conducted apart from the annual guru puja.

The petitioner’s father Thangavelu Thevar was the son of the maternal aunt of Muthuramalinga Thevar. She said the land and property had been in the enjoyment of the family of the freedom fighter for more than 260 years. After the death of the leader the sanctity and ownership of the house was retained by the family, she contended.

In 1995, the government issued a notification to acquire the land along with the house for maintaining the house as a memorial. However, in 2006, it withdrew the acquisition proceedings on the grounds that it was discovered that it was a government property and not a private property.

Justice R. Vijayakumar observed that as per the records placed by officials the land was classified as government poramboke and it was retained as a government poramboke with a remark that it was the memorial of the late leader. However, the petitioner contended that it was grama natham and wrongly reclassified as government poramboke. The petitioner had not submitted any records to show the year in which the land was reclassified as government poramboke.

In view of the lack of materials relating to revenue classification, the court was not in a position to arrive at any finding with regard to the original classification or the date of reclassification. Therefore, the entire issue relating to the title and the land reclassification was left to be adjudicated by a competent civil court, if the petitioner was so advised, the judge said.