KOCHI: The High Court said that making NOC mandatory for the construction of buildings for title holders in the Munnar region cannot continue forever. It was also assessed that the NOC provision cannot be removed at this stage as it has been found that there are thousands of fake pattayams even with the restrictions in place. The current system is to get an NOC from the Revenue Department to obtain permission from the local bodies for building construction.

A division bench comprising Justice A Muhammad Mushtaq and Justice Shobha Annamma Eapen stated that NOC can be avoided if a list is prepared by identifying genuine and fake titles. The court asked the government if it had such a list. The answer was no. Then Idukki District Collector was instructed to provide the details of genuine and fake titles. The collector has to appear online on the 24th for this purpose.

The division bench was considering the petitions filed by the organization 'One Earth One Life' in Thrissur seeking to stop encroachment and illegal construction in Munnar. The High Court had earlier blocked the appointment of Idukki Collector for election duty in North India. The court recorded that the Election Commission had informed that it would be enough to get another official instead, and verbally said that the Idukki Collector should remain in his position for six months.