Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Government is bringing in new legislation which allows granting of ownership to the landowner in case of an increase in the area of his private land after resurvey.

The State Government will assign the land to the owner after charging him a fee fixed on the basis of the fair value of the land.

The Revenue Department is taking steps to introduce a Settlement Act to assign the extra area of land to the private owner if the owner of the adjacent land does not raise any objection. The official-level discussions regarding the proposed law were held at the Secretariat.

The law will come into force by the time the digital survey is completed in 200 villages. The digital survey, which will begin by next month, will be completed in four months.

The idea is to regularise the ownership of such extra land. Since there are thousands of such cases in the State, the government is expecting a good revenue from this exercise.

At present, the provision under Kerala Survey and Boundaries Rules, 1964, only allows remitting of tax for the extra land found in re-survey. But it does not grant ownership rights to the landholders. One has to approach the court for getting the ownership right in such cases.

Though there exists a practice of additional land being made part of the title deed at the time of handing over of the land through sale or through other modes, such moves have no legal backing.

Current practice and issues

On September 18, 1991, the Revenue Board (Survey) Secretary issued a circular stating that "pokkuvaravu" can be done for the extra land found in resurvey.

The Revenue Department issued another order on September 15, 2020, stating that the tahsildar can decide on cases where the area difference is not five per cent and the District Collector in cases where it is more than five per cent.

But still, thousands of applications are pending before the additional tahsildars. Right now, if there is any difference in the area after resurvey, village authorities will not allow the landowners to pay the tax. Many people are suffering due to this, without even getting a land tax receipt that is a must for applying for a bank loan.

The Revenue Additional Secretary has issued a new order by annulling the orders issued in 1991 and 2020 in order to redress issues faced by landowners in this regard.

As per the new order, in case of an increase in the area of a private land after resurvey, the landowner can pay the tax that he paid last time. But in case of a decrease in the area of land after resurvey, tax can be paid after giving an affidavit that he would pay the tax for the existing area of the land.