"Caring for elderly our greatest responsibility": Kerala High Court paves way for octogenarian to reclaim land

The Kerala High Court recently made an exception for an octogenarian and allowed her to reclaim a part of her waterlogged property, which otherwise would not have been permitted as per the Conservation of Paddy Land and Wet Land Act, 2008 [Sarojam L v. State of Kerala]..In doing so, Justice PV Kunhikrishnan also paved the way for the 85-year-old woman, who had no living family, to build a house in which she could live out the rest of her days. "An 85-year-old lady is coming before this Court to get shelter. Caring for all old people is perhaps the greatest responsibility of all of us. They are the people who walked before us. We should respect their last ambitions in a pragmatic manner. The senior citizens who walked before us have given so much and made possible the life we all enjoy," the Court said..The Court also emphasised that citizens as well as courts have a duty to care for the elderly."This is a fit case in which the Constitutional Court and the respondents should come forward to see that the dream of this 85-year-old lady is fulfilled and to tell the whole world that the petitioner is not an orphan and the Court and every citizen of this country is behind her," the Court said. .The octogenarian petitioner in this case owned 81 cents of waterlogged land on which she wished to build her own house before she died.Her husband and son had passed away and she had been residing in an orphanage since then. She had no other house or property other than the waterlogged property.Some well-wishers from the locality were willing to construct a small house for her if she could reclaim 10 cents out of the 81 cent-land.She submitted an application for the same before the concerned Local Level Monitoring Committee. However, the Committee refused to recommend the reclamation. It stated in its report that the reclamation of 10 cents of land would affect the ecological balance of the surrounding area.This prompted her to move the High Court with the present petition arguing that the report of the Committee was incorrect since there are many houses situated in the area surrounding her property. .On analysing the provisions of the Conservation of Paddy Land and Wet Land Act, 2008, the Court noted that reclamation of paddy land for constructing residential houses is possible only if the following conditions are met:the reclamation will not adversely affect the ecological condition and the cultivation in the adjoining paddy land; the owner of the paddy land or his family do not own a suitable land for this purpose in the district; the building to be constructed is for his purpose; and such paddy land is not situated surrounded by other paddy land..Even though not all the conditions were met in this case, the Court decided that it could not dismiss the plea of the 85-year-old woman."Balance of ecological conditions is a need for the citizen and not for the law. The petitioner, who is an 85-year-old lady, wants to construct a residential house in her last days of life. She is an orphan residing in an orphanage. Her husband and son already died. I am of the considered opinion that this Court cannot turn its face to this ground reality and reject the application stating that the reclamation of the property will adversely affect the ecological condition and the cultivation in the adjoining paddy land," the Court said. The Court directed the concerned authorities to consider this as an exceptional case and find 10 cents of land in the petitioners' property that would have the least environmental impact if reclaimed by the petitioner to construct a house. "This should be done within 3 weeks because every day is important to this Octogenarian who is now 85 years old," the Court added.However, it clarified that the directions issued in this case were confined to the petitioner's property and should not be treated as a precedent. .Advocate AS Sabu appeared for the petitioner. Government Pleader Devishri R appeared for the Kerala government authorities. .[Read Judgment]