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N. KANNADASAN, J.

The above writ appeals are filed as against the common order dated 31.01.2003 in Writ Petition Nos.382 to 394 of 2001, wherein the learned Judge has allowed the writ petitions.

2. The facts leading to the filing of the writ petitions are set out hereunder:-

The writ petitioners and their ancestors were in occupation of small pieces of land in Kadathur Village, Pappi Reddi Patti Taluk, Dharmapuri District for more than 40 years and the said lands are classified as 'Natham' lands or otherwise called as 'Grama Natham' lands. The petitioners have submitted necessary applications for issuance of pattas and the Tahsildar, Natham Scheme, Harur Taluk, conducted an enquiry and recommended the names of the petitioners for the grant of patta. The then District Collector, Dharmapuri District has passed an order granting pattas as early as in the year 1992 and necessary entries were also carried out in the revenue records. However, subsequently, the authorities intended to evict the petitioners on the ground that the land in question is required for the use of the fourth respondent-Town Panchayat. A claim is made by the fourth respondent-Town Panchayat that the land belongs to the Panchayat and the resolution was passed to the effect that the land required for the use of the Panchayat and necessary action to be initiated to evict the petitioners, resulting in the petitioners have approached this Court by way of writ petitions which culminated into final orders to the effect that the petitioners cannot be evicted without following due process of law, much less without cancellation of the pattas. It is also pertinent to state that some of the petitioners have approached the Civil Court to resist the forcible eviction. Subsequently, the third respondent by order dated 28.12.2000 has passed an order cancelling the pattas already granted in favour of the petitioners. Aggrieved against the said order, the petitioners have filed the writ petitions which are allowed, against which the fourth respondent viz., the Town Panchayat has filed the above appeals.

4. We have considered the contentions urged by the learned counsel for the appellant and the learned Special Government Pleader for the respondents 2 to 4 in the above appeals.

5. While dealing with the contentions urged by the learned counsel for the appellant, the matter has to be dealt with in the light of the nature and classification of the land which is under occupation of the petitioners. There is no dispute that the land under occupation of the petitioners is classified as 'Natham' or otherwise called as 'Grama Natham' land and the petitioners were g ranted pattas as early as in the year 1992 recognising their continued occupation. For the purpose of exercising right as against the petitioners to evict them from the land in question, it has to be decided as to whether the ' Grama Natham' land actually vests either with the Government or the Town Panchayat. As regards the classification of the land as 'Grama Natham', it is not the communal property in the sense in which thrashing floor or burning grounds or other property is communal viz., the property reserved for the use of the community. The 'Grama Natham' land, if it is unoccupied, is assigned from time to time by the proprietor whether it is in zamindari area or in an inam village; and the said practice was referred to by the learned Judge WADSWORTH, J. In Chinnathambi Goundan vs. Venkatasubramania Ayyar (49 L.W. 326) as early as on 6.12.1938. The learned Judge while dealing with the vacant house sites, taken note of the recognised practice of the then Madras Presidency, excluding the areas with a special revenue law such as Malabar, the control of unoccupied village site vests in the proprietor whoever he may be. A further reference is also made therein to the effect that in Zamindari areas, that control is exercised by Zamindar and in a shrotriem village not falling under the Estates Land Act, the village site vests in the shrotriemdar. Even in respect of lands covered under the Madras Estate Land Act, it is held that the Government can exercise its powers only to the limited extent to prevent the diversion of village site poramboke from the purpose for which it has been reserved and it was held therein that the village sites did not actually vest with the Government. The above view was approved subsequently in the decision rendered in Palani Ammal vs. L.Sethurama Aiyangar reported in 1949 (1) MLJ 290.

10. We draw inference for the above view from the decision rendered by this Court in S.Rangaraja Iyengar vs. Achi Kannu Ammal dated 3.3.1959 reported in 1959 (2) MLJ 513 = 72 L.W. 767. A similar view is expressed by the Apex Court in its decision rendered in C.V.Subbaya vs. P.Anjayya reported in AIR 1972 SC 1421, while referring to Section 3(b) of the Madras Act XXVI of 1948, it is held therein that the communal lands, porambokes, other ryotwari lands, waste lands, forests, mines and minerals, quarries, rivers and streams tanks and irrigation works etc., vest with the Government other than the land classified as 'Grama Natham'. This Court in its decision rendered in N.S. Kuppuswamy Odayar vs. Narthangudi Panchayat reported in 1971 MLJ REPORTS 190 has held that the classification of 'Natham Poramboke' and the description of 'Poramboke' in the settlement register will not by itself establish title of the Government to the land in question.

11. Similarly, this Court in Thillaivanam, A.K. And Another vs. District Collector, Chengai Anna District and 3 Others (1998 (3) L.W. 60

3) and in Krishnamurthy Gounder vs. Government of Tamil Nadu (2002 (3 ) CTC

221) held that the house sites classified as 'Grama Natham' cannot be construed as vesting with the Government.

12. Further, 'Grama Natham' is defined in the Law Lexicon as " ground set apart on which the house of village may be built". Similarly, Natham land is described in Tamil lexicon published under the authority of University of Madras to the effect that it is a residential portion of a village; or portion of a village inhabited by the nonBrahmins; or land reserved as house sites; etc.