The Kerala High Court has fined three revenue officials Rs 30,000 for refusing to accept a landowner’s property tax despite a government order and a Lokayukta direction, and has directed the authorities to consider disciplinary action against them.
A division bench comprising Justice Dr A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice A.K. Preetha imposed the penalty on the Thiruvananthapuram Revenue Divisional Officer, the Tahsildar in charge of land records and the Vanchiyoor Village Officer. The court dismissed the officials’ petition against an interim order issued by the Lokayukta.
The case concerns A. Maithीन Pillai, a retired additional secretary and resident of Palayam in Vanchiyoor village. He had paid property tax on 4.151 cents of land until 2018. The village officer later declined to accept the tax after a resurvey reportedly recorded the extent of the property as 3.53 cents.
Maithीन Pillai approached the Lokayukta against the refusal. A government order provided that, while disputes arising from a resurvey remained unresolved, tax should be accepted for the extent claimed by the owner. On that basis, the Lokayukta directed the authorities to accept the property tax.
Instead of complying with the direction, the revenue officials approached the High Court challenging the Lokayukta’s interim order. The division bench rejected their petition and criticised the officials for disregarding a government order intended to protect citizens while resurvey disputes were being settled.
The court said revenue officials should not hold people captive by ignoring a government order issued in their favour, according to the report by Malayala Manorama. The ruling links a routine civic transaction—payment of property tax—to the administrative consequences of disputed land measurements and resurvey records.
The court directed the government to pay Maithીન Pillai Rs 30,000 within two weeks. The amount is to be recovered from the three officials at Rs 10,000 each. The bench also directed the authorities to consider disciplinary action against the officials for deliberately violating the government order.
The case highlights the administrative difficulty faced by landowners when tax records and resurvey measurements do not match. Until the court’s directions, the dispute had prevented the owner from completing a basic statutory payment despite the existence of a specific government mechanism for dealing with such cases. The immediate next step is the payment of the penalty within the two-week period and consideration of disciplinary action against the officials.
