Pala: Poovelil Chacko (78), a speech and hearing impaired resident of Neeloor in Kottayam district, and his wife Daisy are finally happy as ‘pokkuvaravu’ (mutation) has been done on their land following a two-decades-long legal battle.

They had not received justice, despite visiting government offices, meeting the District Collector, Revenue Minister, and Chief Minister, and even obtaining a favourable verdict from the Kerala High Court.

The couple had also staged a hunger strike in front of the Meenachil taluk office some years ago, but it was futile. On August 19, Chacko and Daisy went on another hunger strike in front of the taluk office, which attracted the attention of tahsildar Littymol Thomas and land boundary tahsildar Seema Joseph, who promised a solution. On August 22, the mutation took place, following which Chacko paid the land tax at the Kadanad village office in his name.

Chacko had purchased the plot measuring four acres in 1988 and registered it in his name at the Ramapuram sub-registrar's office. However, the authorities did not carry out mutation of the property. In 1991, the then revenue authorities conducted mutation of the property in the name of some other persons with forged documents, succumbing to pressure from them.

After learning about this fraud, Chacko began visiting government offices in 2008, seeking the return of his land. Following the hunger strike in front of the taluk office in 2017, the RDO (revenue divisional officer) cancelled the mutation carried out in violation of the law.

The RDO also ordered a mutation in the name of the rightful owner of the property. An inquiry conducted by the District Survey Superintendent also revealed the malpractice, and a correction in the documents was ordered. But revenue officials did not implement any of these orders for all these years.

Finally, Chacko and Daisy succeeded in reclaiming their land following a long legal battle carried out with the help of Joy Kalaraikkal, president of the civil rights organisation Pala Pouravakasa Samithy.