Supreme Court orders an alternative site for flat owners before apartments on a water body are pulled down

25 October 2026

In S. Gururaj v. The Additional Chief Secretary and Commissioner of Land Administration, a Supreme Court bench of Justice SVN Bhatti and Justice NV Anjaria declined to disturb the cancellation of a ryotwari patta over land that the earliest revenue and settlement records showed to be a government water body. The Court held that zoning rules permitting residential development do not extinguish the government's rights over poramboke land or water bodies. It relied on Section 14-A of the Tamil Nadu Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948, which bars the grant of a ryotwari patta over private tanks or ooranis and provides for cancellation. The Court also found that the flat buyers had relied on official building approvals and revenue records. It directed the Tamil Nadu government to allot them a vacant site of commensurate value, preferably within six months, before the apartments on 0.22 acres are demolished.