Kerala - Kochi   

HMT land case: hearing adjourned

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday adjourned to March 10 the hearing on a writ petition seeking a CBI probe into the sale of 70 acres of land at Kalamassery by the HMT to a Mumbai-based company.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice K.M. Joseph adjourned the hearing to enable the petitioner, State Human Rights Protection Centre, to file a reply affidavit to the government’s affidavit. The court asked the petitioner’s counsel Sivan Madathil to state in the reply whether a public interest writ petition was maintainable in the matter. The court also adjourned to March 10 the hearing on a petition seeking to implead Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran, Industries Minister Elamaram Karim and Industries Secretary T. Balakrishnan in their personal capacity as respondents in the petition.

Meanwhile, in an affidavit the District Registrar (General) and the Inspector General of Registration said that they were not the statutory authorities empowered to effect mutation on transfer of immovable properties. It came within the purview of the Revenue authorities such as tahsildars and village officers. The affidavit said that no direction had been issued either by the District Collector or by any other authority to examine the action of the Edappally sub-registrar in registering the sale deed and to examine whether there was any possibility of nullifying the registration under the provisions of the law. The action of the registering authority in registering the document was perfectly in accordance with the law, the affidavit said.

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