The Sampadak Express News Desk
The Supreme Court has upheld the cancellation of a ryotwari patta granted over land recorded as a government water body in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district and directed the State to provide an alternative site to the owners of 20 flats before their apartments are demolished. The judgment was delivered on October 16, 2026.
According to The Hindu, a Bench of Justices S.V.N. Bhatti and N.V. Anjaria said flat owners had been led to believe by official orders and revenue records that the State had no interest in the parcel. Justice Bhatti wrote that ordering demolition without considering the purchasers’ hardship and their remedies against the landowner and developer “would cause irreparable financial injury and throw the families on the streets.”
The Court instructed the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu and the Tiruvallur District Collector to allot a vacant, commensurate site to the flat owners, represented by their society, preferably within six months. It said that, without breaching Section 14-A of the Tamil Nadu Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948, demolition of the constructed area to an extent of 0.22 acres should proceed after such allotment.
The verdict dismissed three civil appeals filed by a flat owner and Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank Ltd., which had challenged the cancellation of the patta and the directions to restore the land as a water body. The bank had extended credit facilities of ₹3.40 crore secured by a mortgage over the land.
The dispute concerns a survey number in Thirumullaivoyal village. The 1911 resettlement register recorded the parcel as “Government Poramboke – Kanakkan Kuttai,” part of a larger extent of 1.68 acres. In January 2011, the District Revenue Officer, Tiruvallur, granted a ryotwari patta for 0.72 acres to P. Ramadoss. The land was later transacted and developed, culminating in the construction of 20 residential flats.
In December 2019, the Commissioner of Land Administration set aside the patta, finding it had been issued contrary to applicable legal provisions. The Madras High Court upheld the cancellation and ordered removal of unauthorised structures and restoration of the water body.
Rejecting the appellants’ case, the Supreme Court noted that the earliest revenue records classified the land as a tank and government poramboke, rather than ryoti land eligible for a patta. It held that the appellants had not shown the parcel qualified for grant under the 1948 Act.
A ryotwari patta is an official revenue record issued to an individual cultivator, recognising the right to occupy and cultivate specified land on payment of land tax directly to the government.
The State has been asked to complete the alternative allotment within six months and then carry out demolition of the identified constructed area.
