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| Supreme Court grants Centre 3 weeks in Goa, Karntaka water row Posted: 18 Oct 2010 08:14 AM PDT The Supreme Court today granted three weeks to the Centre for notifying the constitution of a tribunal to hear the water dispute between Goa and Karnataka on the construction of Kalasa Banduri project across the Mandovi river by the latter. A bench of Justice Mukundakam Sharma and Justice AR Dave told additional solicitor general (ASG) Haren Rawal that if steps were not taken for notifying the tribunal it would be forced to pass appropriate orders. “We may have to pass an order if you don’t do it,” the Bench told the ASG after the latter sought three weeks time on the issue. The Centre had earlier told the apex court that it would constitute the tribunal but today when the matter came up for hearing it again sought three weeks forcing the apex court to pass the direction. Goa, in its suit filed through counsel A Subhashini, has contended the project contemplated by Karnataka in the inter-state river of Mandovi involved diversion of water outside the basin, which was not permissible. The state argued any extraction of water by the upper riparian state of Karnataka would deprive the inhabitants of Goa of drinking water and consequently affect their rights. It said the project was aimed at transferring the waters outside the basin, which was clearly against the national water policy as it would result in the flow of the river being curtailed, hampered or stopped. Goa wanted the Centre to immediately constitute a Mandovi River Water Disputes Tribunal for adjudication of the dispute. Karnataka has, however, rebutted the argument claiming that the proposed diversion of water was only 7.56 tmcft annually, out of the total availability of 180 to 220 tmcft as estimated by Central Water Commission. It took the plea that trans-basin diversion of water from the surplus Mandovi basin to the deficit Krishna basin for meeting drinking water supplies was permissible under the rules. It sought dismissal of the suit on the ground that Goa had not made out any prima facie case for seeking stay on the execution of the project. Courtesy:DNA |
| Goa Law panel drafting Title Guarantee Act Posted: 18 Oct 2010 07:24 AM PDT The Goa Law Commission is drafting a new ‘Title Guarantee Act’ for Goa whereby the buyer or holder of a property will hold a certificate as final proof of ownership of that property. Goa Law Commission chairman Ramakant Khalap told TOI that the new Act will be on the lines of similar Acts in developed countries. While bestowing final ownership to a person, the ‘title’ will also serve as an insurance whereby in case of faulty registration of a property, the original owner will get compensation. Khalap said the new law should eliminate lots of litigations in Goa because presently almost every civil suit in Goa pertains to land disputes; title, boundary, area, etc. “It is a very ambitious project which the state government must take up. We are presently in consultation and will formulate the law by December,” Khalap said. He explained that Goa had an old Portuguese system under which every piece of land was given a description number and against that description number, the records very clearly stated to whom the particular property belonged. For revenue, another number was given. That record maintained the subsequent transfer of titles either from one person to another or by succession. There was a beautiful flow of titles, which could be made out by resorting to those records under the Portuguese laws. But later Goa brought in the land revenue code and all properties were surveyed. The properties were given survey numbers, but the old cadastral survey numbers and the old land records were not taken into consideration. In a way, the new land revenue code, was enacted for the purpose of enabling the government to collect revenue from the property. So the title was not looked into at all, Khalap said. As a result, a piece of property which had a definite survey number under the old Portuguese system either got merged with the neighbouring property or got sub-divided into different other properties and a chaotic situation appeared. Khalap said that the occupant’s name or names which you find today in the land records, prepared under land revenue code may or may not be the owner, they may or may not be real occupant. If one obtains a survey record prepared under the land revenue code, what one gets is an indication of area of the property and an indication of the name of the person who is supposed to be current occupant; it does not say who the owner is. The survey record suggests the name of a tenant if there is a tenant’s column. If anyone challenges that record today, that challenge has to be taken up to the court for a final decision. As a result, in Goa today, no piece of land can be certified as belonging to a particular person. There is no guarantee whatsoever, about title of any piece of land in the state of Goa, Khalap said. Lawyers undertake what they call the ’search’ and they give a conclusion that in his opinion that property belongs to so and so. But that is also a report which is a perception of the lawyer examining the title. Khalap said, “If I buy a piece of land and obtain a certificate or sale deed registered and I flaunt that certificate that the property belongs to me, it is not final.” He said that under the new law the government will give a certain number of days or months to register one’s claim on a property; whether one accept what is recorded in the survey records as true or not. A close scrutiny will establish real ownership. “When you do this exercise, I feel that out of 100 title holders, at least 40 to 50% people will respond and lots of land ownership issues will be sorted out forever in Goa,” Khalap said. Courtesy:TOI |
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