Paddy and Wetland Act

In Dr Satheeshsankaranarayanannamboothiri v State of Kerala [2025:KER:40084] the Kerala High Court decided that a property that remains irreparably fragmented by government acquisition, lies landlocked by roads and fallow with the scattered vegetation, and continues to remain unsuitable for cultivation, cannot be classified as paddy or wetland under the Kerala Conservation of Paddy and Wetland, 2008 & its Rules.

The owner or the person in custody of any paddy land or wet land in Kerala shall not have any power to convert or reclaim such lands, since the enactment of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008 (2008 Act) on 12th August 2008 and the allied rules enacted in 2008. The removal of sand from wetland is also prohibited by the 2008 Act. However, there are two exceptions to this general rule. One is that the owner of the land can seek permission to convert paddy land and construct a residence, and the other is conversion of land for public purposes.

The final Data Bank to be prepared in Kerala should contain only the details of the property which are paddy land and wetland as shown on the date on which the Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act 2008 (2008 Act) came into force, says Kerala High Court in Basil v Local Level Monitoring Committee.

If a property, unfit for being included, is wrongly included in the Data Bank constituted as per the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland, 2008 then the aggrieved person is at liberty to file an application for removal of the property from the data bank on the ground of wrong inclusion. This is what Kerala High Court of Kerala ( HC) says in RDO v Poothotta Resorts Pvt Ltd [ 2023(1) KLT 155].