Acquisition of PV Anwar's land; legal proceedings will continue

KOZHIKODE: Legal proceedings will continue on the Thamarassery Taluk Land Board order to voluntarily hand over 6.24 acres of additional land held by PV Anwar MLA to the government. PV Anwar may take legal action against this. It is believed that the reply was based on the documents provided by the complainant and this is a violation of land acquisition procedures. At the same time, the complainants will also take legal action against the reduction of the action to only 6.24 acres despite the mention of confiscation of 15 acres of land in the report submitted in the last sitting. The action was taken on the petition of KV Shaji, who is landless and coordinator of the Malappuram District Information Rights Association.

The Land Board's directive to PV Anwar to provide a list of lands to be reserved to the government in case of excess land was found, was not followed. A partnership firm called PVR Entertainments in Kakkadampoyil was found to circumvent the Land Limitation Act. There was also an observation that 15 acres of land could be confiscated out of 27.23 acres owned by Anwar. The complainant had produced the documents of 50.49 acres of land including those of benami. On July 19, 2017, the state land board had ordered the chairman of the Thamarassery taluk land board to register a case under the Kerala Land Reforms Act against Anwar and his family for possessing land beyond the limit. However, when this order was not implemented, Shaji approached the High Court. In this case, the High Court had first ordered on March 20, 2020 to complete the process to recover the surplus land of Anwar and his family within six months. When this order was not implemented, the High Court was again approached with a contempt petition. With this, the High Court ordered on January 13, 2022 that the surplus land should be reclaimed within five months. However, Shaji approached the High Court again, saying that no action was taken even after one and a half years of the deadline granted by the court. With this, the High Court resumed the contempt of court case. Chairman of Zonal Land Board and Special Deputy Tehsildar of Thamarassery Taluk Land Board gave an affidavit in the High Court that they would complete the process within three months along with an unconditional apology for the failure to implement the High Court order. The High Court will hear the case on the 18th.