Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation (BBTC) has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court challenging an order passed by the Commissioner of Land Administration (CLA) on January 31 cancelling the lease of 8,373.57 acres of forest land at Singampatti in Ambasamudram taluk of Tirunelveli district.
Justice V. Parthiban directed the State government to file its counter affidavit and posted the case for final hearing on February 21. He desisted from passing interim orders since a Division Bench of the court had ordered that the CLA’s order be kept in abeyance until further orders to be passed by the court.
The issue relates to huge tracts of forest lands taken on lease by BBTC, a private plantation company, from Singamapatti Zamindar in 1929 on an annual rent of ₹1.75 an acre for cultivating coffee, tea, cocoa, cinchona, cardamom, pepper and other products except timber.
After the enactment of the Madras Estate (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act of 1948, the Singapatti estate was taken over by the government in February 1952. Yet, in 1958, the then Board of Revenue allowed the lease to continue on a host of conditions that included a prohibition on clearing the natural forests in certain areas.
Since there were complaints of the plantation company having violated the conditions of lease by clearing the natural growth of trees from 249 out of 970 acres of the prohibited catchment area of Kosanguliar, the CLA conducted an inquiry and cancelled the lease for the entire extent of land.