Public road vs private road
The moot question that came up before the Kerala High Court in Mariam Beevi v The Secretary, Athirampuzha Grama Panchayat was whether a road that was leading to the houses of the petitioner and six others was an exclusive private path, meant for the benefit of those seven persons; or a public road vested in the respondent Grama Panchayat, meant for the benefit of the general public.
A few residents want to retain private road
In this case, the petitioner, having a residential building within the limits of the respondent Grama Panchayat, shares a pathway with six others in the locality. The pathway, formed when an area of 71 cents of private land was plotted out by the owner of the property, was only meant to serve the needs of the houses constructed on either side of it.
When the petitioner and her neighbours came to know that the Panchayat had included the private pathway in its Asset Register, all of them submitted application to the Panchayat seeking the removal of the road from the Asset Register but there was no official reply. After a considerable lapse of time, the Grama Panchayat started laying interlocking blocks on a part of the road.
A pathway that connects to a network becomes public
The HC says if a pathway is within the confines of a house, however sprawling it may be, whatever lies therein may be private in character and private in use.
However once if the pathway is meant to connect somebody else’s, thus becoming part of a network of roads or paths, however short or insignificant its extent and reach may be, it is to sub-serve the public purpose of providing access to and fro.
Once a property assumes the character, say, a road or a path, having the potential of being a public utility, it ceases to have any exclusivity, for the individual interest, that is to yield to the common good.
All roads, roads, street etc belong to Govt or local govts
The Section 169 of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act says all public roads, other than those classified by the government, National Highway, State Highway or major district roads, bridges, culverts, ditches, dykes, fences on or beside the same protective devices and all adjacent land, not being private property appertaining thereto, within the panchayat area belong to Grama Panchayats.
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