Bharatiya Janata Party national executive member V.Muraleedharan has demanded that Revenue Minister E.Chandrasekharan initiate steps to take over the land that was irregularly used by the Kerala Law Academy Law College.
He also sought action against the academy authorities and government officials who conspired with them.
In a letter to Mr.Chandrasekharan on Monday, Mr.Muraleedharan, who is on a fast before the academy, asked the government to take over 34.5 cents on Punnen Road and 11.49 acres at Peroorkada that were irregularly used by the academy management.
Action should be taken against the academy authorities as well as the government officials who conspired with them for the irregular use of land, he said.
The land on Punnen Road near the Secretariat was purchased by N.Narayanan Nair in 1973 in his capacity as academy secretary. It should be used only for the purposes of the academy society. But joining hands with a private real estate company, it constructed a 10-storey building and had decided to sell the apartments in the complex. Permit was secured from the corporation for constructing a commercial complex.
The corporation granted building permit to Mr.Narayanan Nair in violation of norms. The Law Academy Society, registered in 1955 under the provisions of the Travancore Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act, was constituted for creating legal awareness, facilitate law studies, impart legal assistance, and such other purposes.
But the society had deviated from its founding principles and become a real estate company. Hence, the government should take over the land on Punnen Road. A case should be registered against the academy management and the officials involved in the conspiracy, he said.
The 11.49 acres at Peroorkada was leased out to the academy to a trust comprising the Governor, Chief Minister, Ministers, High Court judges, and eminent lawyers in 1968. This was clarified by the late M.N. Govindan Nair, who was Agriculture Minister, in the Assembly on August 23, 1968 in reply to a question of N.I. Devassikutty. He had spelt out the lease norms, mainly that the land could be recovered with a month’s notice any time.
But subsequently Mr.Narayanan Nair and his family gained control over the trust and the land worth ₹300 crore went to their possession. Now the land was being used for various purposes and neither the government nor the university had any documents about it.
The government should take over the land diverted for commercial purposes and take immediate action against those involved, he said.
