What land is being acquired and where
The land is being taken for an industrial park to be developed by SIPCOT. All of it lies in Sattur taluk of Virudhunagar district.
The notices list 218 survey numbers in total. Of these, 190 are in Kumaralingapuram.E and 28 are in E.Muthulingapuram. No other villages appear in the notices.
The acquisition is under the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Industrial Purposes Act, 1997. This is a State law, so the notices appear in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette and not in the Gazette of India.
The notices and their stage
Three notifications have been published. The first, dated 14 February 2020, covers one village. The second, dated 7 November 2020, covers both villages. The third, dated 30 August 2022, covers one village and was corrected by a later notice.
Under section 3(1) of the 1997 Act, the Government acquires land for an industrial purpose by publishing a notice in the Gazette. Before doing so, the Act requires that the owner and other interested persons be given an opportunity to show cause against the acquisition.
Under section 3(2), once the notice is published, the land vests absolutely in the Government, free from all encumbrances. There is no separate later declaration stage of the kind found in the 2013 Act. What follows is the fixing and payment of compensation and the taking of possession.
None of the three notifications has been withdrawn in full. However, two survey number entries in Kumaralingapuram.E have been withdrawn from the acquisition. Because the August 2022 notice was later corrected, survey numbers and extents should be read together with the correction.
The villages
Kumaralingapuram.E, Sattur taluk, Virudhunagar district: 190 survey numbers listed, of which 2 have been withdrawn.
E.Muthulingapuram, Sattur taluk, Virudhunagar district: 28 survey numbers listed, none withdrawn.
A survey number appearing in a notice does not always mean the whole survey number is taken. Notices often list subdivisions and specific extents, so check the subdivision and the area shown against your own patta.
What to do if your land is listed
Obtain copies of all three Gazette notifications and the correction to the August 2022 notice. Match your survey number, subdivision and extent exactly. Also check whether your entry is one of the two withdrawn in Kumaralingapuram.E.
Contact the Land Acquisition Officer (SIPCOT) or the office of the District Collector, Virudhunagar, to confirm the current position of your land, the compensation award and the payment status. The Sattur Taluk office can confirm revenue records.
Keep your title documents, patta, chitta, adangal and encumbrance certificate ready. Compensation is paid to the person shown to be entitled, so records should be correct and up to date.
If you are buying land in these villages, check the survey number against the notices before paying any advance. Once a notice is published under the Act, the land vests in the Government, and a later private sale does not give the buyer a good title to it.