The Kerala High Court cancelled the government land grant for Kallodi St. George Church at Mananthavadi in Wayanad. The Pattayam issued in 2015 was cancelled by the High Court.
Pattayam is a title deed issued when government-owned land is transferred (leased or, in Kallodi’s case, granted to individuals or institutions. Forest-dwelling Vanvasis approached the court, questioning the donation of land to the Christian Church.
In 2015, the UDF government (Congress and its allies comprising of Abrahamic and disgruntled leftist parties) granted 5.53 hectares of land to the church at Rs 100 per acre. One hectare is around four bigha or 2.5 acres or 250 cents). Back then, the market value of the land was around 1 lakh per cent. This means that public property worth crores of Rupees was donated to the church.
The petitioners pointed out that when more than 6,000 forest dwellers submitted an application to the government for a piece of land, the government gave 5.5 hectares of land to Kallodi St. George Church at just one hundred rupees per acre.
Adv. V. Sajith Kumar convinced the court that the donation happened when forest dwellers faced severe economic and social challenges. The High Court found that the government’s action in allotting land despite the petitions of many landless forest dwellers violated the constitutional rights of the forest dwellers.
The petitioners informed the court that since 1962, the church and its cronies have encroached on 5.5358 hectares of land in Mananthavadi taluk. In the complaint, the petitioners pointed out that the government had claimed that the land had been encroached on, and the government had said that the land would fetch more than three crore rupees.
The church’s leadership has built a school building on the same land. The court rejected the church’s argument that the land was for construction and social activities, including a school and cemetery. Just because a school, a church or a cemetery is built after acquiring public land, it cannot be said that the land is used for public purposes, the court stated.
The government should give land to the landless and the oppressed. The court added that the government should not allow those grabbing government land to become more prosperous. How can the government give that land to them in the name of public interest just because they have encroached on the land and built mosques and churches there?
The High Cout directed the government to determine the market value of the land within two months. The court invited the church to inform whether it could buy the land according to the market value. The court also directed the government to give the church one month to reply.
One month should be given to the church to reply in case of land purchase according to the market price. And if they are not ready to acquire the land by paying the market price, they should be evicted from the land held by the church. The instructions given to the government by the High Court are that the land should be distributed to the eligible people (vanvasis) within three months.
It may also be difficult for the government to trace the entire encroachment in different parts of the state. But if encroachment is found, the government should immediately take action to take back the land, even if it was infringed decades ago. Such encroachers cannot claim any equal right over the land, the bench ruled. The court also ordered the injustice to be rectified soon.
The High Court order has also clarified that the government will use the money received from the purchase of land by the church members for the welfare of the forest dwellers. The government should submit the action report to the High Court within eight months of implementing these matters.
This means that the Christian priests had encroached on the land, stripped it of its wealth, built churches, and the government legalized the whole deal. What did the Congress leaders get in return? Wayanad is infamously represented in the Lok Sabha by Prime Minister wannabe Rahul Gandhi.
