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Tiruchanoor is designated an Inam village.

7. Section 2A of the 1956 Act inserted by amendment, by Act 20 of 1975 provides as follows:

“[2-A. Transfer to, and vesting in the Government of all communal lands, porambokes etc., in inam lands:-

Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act all communal lands and porambokes, grazing lands, waste lands, forest lands, mines and quarries, tanks, tank beds and irrigation works, streams and rivers, fisheries and ferries in the inam lands shall stand transferred to the Government and vest in them free of all encumbrances.” By virtue of Section 2A of the 1956 Act, all forest lands, grazing lands, communal lands, river streams, porambokes, tanks, tank beds etc. vested in the government, free from encumbrances. No person can, therefore, have any claim to tenancy, occupancy or otherwise in respect of any land and/or water body which has vested in the government free from encumbrances under Section 2A of the 1956 Act.

27. The decision of the Collector was based on materials and thus not liable to be interfered with. The High Court very rightly did not interfere with the decision. It was not for the High Court, exercising its extra ordinary power of judicial review, to reanalyse the evidence on record and adjudicate the disputed question of whether the Mahanth of the Mutt had at all granted Saswatha Patta to the predecessors in interest of the appellants, whether the takeed was duly executed by the Mahanth, whether the ryotwari pattas were genuine or otherwise valid or not. Nor was it for the High Court to adjudicate the disputed fact of whether the land in question was in fact a water body or the dried bed of a water body. Cultivation is often carried out on the dried bed of water bodies. That does not denude the land of its character as a water body.

28. The High Court rightly based its decision on the declaration of the entire survey area as water body and held, in effect, that the plots in question had vested in the government free from all encumbrances under Section 2-A of the 1956 Act. The respondents could not, therefore, be compelled to grant ryotwari pattas in respect of the said plots.

29. In this case relief under Article 226 was also liable to be refused on the grounds of delay, laches, acquiescence and/or omission of the appellants to assert their right, if any, within a reasonable time after the commencement of the 1956 Act.

32. This Court has time and again emphasized the need to retain and restore water bodies and held that water bodies are inalienable. Land comprised in water bodies cannot be alienated to any person even if it is dry. Reference may be made to the judgments of this Court in:

(2)    M.C. Mehta (Badkhal and Surajkund Lakes Matter) vs.
       Union of India reported in (1997) 3 SCC 715 and
(3)    Intellectuals Forum v. State of Andhra Pradesh reported
in     (2006) 3 SCC 549