the goan I network
PANAJI
In a significant development the specially-appointed Deputy Collector Agnelo Fernandes who was appointed by the Bombay High Court at Goa to probe into whether the land acquired by Leading Hotels Ltd for setting up a golf course has declared that the land is free from tenancy.
Deputy Collector of Dharbandora who was the consensus candidate for the inquiry, came to the conclusion after hearing the matter over five months that "the land in question was not vested with the tenants as on the date when the Goa Land Act came into force."
The decision is a huge blow to the Saint Anthony Tenants and Mundkars Association, who have all along argued that the land was agricultural tenanted and hence could not have been sold and neither could its use have been converted for non agricultural use according to the Goa Land Use Act.
Leading Hotels Ltd, the company seeking to build a golf course has all along maintained that neither was the land tenanted nor was it agricultural barring a few pockets.
The conclusion of the deputy collector has come as a surprise to the tenants association which has seen the High Court set aside the ‘tenancy free certificates' obtained by Leading Hotels Ltd, earlier as well as kept the NOCs granted to Leading Hotels in abeyance.
The High Court had tasked Fernandes with conclusively finding if the lands were tenanted or not.
"The obligation of the Deputy Collector... is to examine whether as on the date the Goa Land Use Act came into force, the land vested in the tenants in terms of the Agricultural Tenancy Act. Merely on the basis of concession or orders which are alleged to be vitiated, cannot be the sole basis to be considered by the learned Deputy Collector whilst issuing such Tenancy Free Certificates," the High Court had ruled in March this year.
An earlier inquiry by a government officer Sandip Jacques who in his report pointed out that the land at Tiracol, or parts of it, was indeed agricultural but remained inconclusive on whether the land was indeed tenanted.
"It would not be legally appropriate for this authority to explicitly conclude the tenancy aspect on the whole of this land either in the positive or in the negative, first and foremost in the absence of any evidence being led before this authority, even though certain startling facts have come to light... and more importantly when the very same issue of tenancy is pending and is being adjudicated before the appellate courts," Jacques had found.
His inquiry report was rejected by the State government.
THE TIRACOL LAND SAGA
Dy Collector Agnelo Fernandes was appointed by Bombay HC to probe if land acquired by Leading Hotels Ltd for setting up golf course was tenanted or not
Dy Collector was consensus candidate, heard matter for five months
Report comes as a surprise to tenants association
HC had set aside ‘tenancy free certificates' obtained by Leading Hotels Ltd & kept NOCs in abeyance
The original owners have indulged upon an illegal expedition to circumvent the provisions of the Agricultural Tenancy Act and the Goa Land Use Act to fraudulently claim that the subject properties are not tenanted
- Adv Norma Alvares
