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The court also directed the Tamil Nadu government to look into the structural corruption in the matter of grabbing of government lands, consider and enact suitable law to deal with the offences, so as to prevent such illegal acts.
Justice S M Subramaniam gave the directive while rejecting a plea from M/s Hotel Saravana Bhavan, which sought a direction to the authorities to grant patta for 3.45 acres of land situated in front of the Central Bus Stand at Koyembedu here for constructing a shopping mall and hyper market with an investment of Rs 1,575 crore. It contended the land which was given to it by the previous AIADMK government just before the 2021 Assemly election, was cancelled by the present DMK government last year.
The judge said the facts established and the documents produced by the respective parties to the case on hand would be sufficient enough to arrive at an inevitable conclusion that the petitioner was not entitled for grant of patta. The petitioner was an encroacher of the government land who has grabbed it for unjust gains in a systematic manner, more specifically with the connivance of the government officials in support of few private individuals who all were influential people in the society, the judge added.
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As regards the present case, the court directed the authorities to take possession of the government land in entirety and fence the property and utilise it for larger public interest in consonance with the principles laid down by the constitutional Courts.
The judge also directed the authorities to initiate appropriate criminal prosecution and disciplinary action against those, including Government officials and public servants, who all were responsible and accountable for grabbing of the high value government property across Tamil Nadu.
The judge directed the authorities to appoint a High Level Committee to identify the grabbing of government lands, illegalities and irregularities in dealing with government property, recovery of arrears of lease rent, unlawful occupation of government property and initiate all appropriate action including criminal prosecution to protect the financial interest of the State and to safeguard the poor and voiceless people of Tamil Nadu.