The Kerala Lok Ayukta on Friday said that the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) would have to ‘trace out and produce’ the records pertaining to the acquisition of land in 1960 for laying a sewage line through a portion of prime property in Pattoor where a high-end apartment and shopping complex is currently under construction.
The court refused to accept the KWA’s contention that age had ruined the old records and hence they were no more available.
The records are crucial to the court’s investigation to find out whether there is any truth in the compliant that the builder had forged records, falsified orders and reports, and influenced officials to appropriate 16.5 cents of ‘public land’ through which the pipe line passed.
Heeding to the builder’s plea, the District Collector had in 2009 ordered the old sewage line be re-oriented through the property’s border prior to the start of construction.
The court wants to find out whether the erstwhile Public Health and Engineering Department, PHED, which laid the 500-mm sewerage line through the plot in the 1960s, had acquired the land through which it passed. (The PHED is predecessor to the KWA.)
The court said that the PHED could have laid the original line in 1960 only after acquiring the land through which it passed.
The court needed to find out whether the acquisition was through government takeover, surrender of land by the owners, or by merely obtaining the consent of the landlords.
Adverse inferenceIt is not enough for the KWA to state that the records of acquisition of pipeline land are not traceable. Withholding any such document will force the court to draw an adverse inference under section 114 (g) of the Evidence Act.
The court also ordered the Director of Archives to produce the copy of the field measurement sketch of the 1960s line. Judges Pius C. Kuriakose and K.P. Balachandran presided. They will hear the case again on December 5.
