Kerala High Court Ruling on Lakshadweep Pandaram Land

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Key takeaways

The Kerala High Court held that traditional cowledars holding pandaram land before the 1965 Regulation are lawful landowners in Lakshadweep.
Lakshadweep is India's smallest Union Territory, spanning just 32.62 square kilometers of land area across 36 coral islands.
The archipelago controls an Exclusive Economic Zone of 400,000 square kilometers despite its small landmass.
The southern island of Minicoy is separated from the northern archipelago by the Nine Degree Channel.

The Kerala High Court ruled that traditional cowledars holding pandaram land before the 1965 Regulation are lawful landowners.
This ruling quashes previous arbitrary resumption orders issued by the local administration to take back the land.

Lakshadweep means one hundred thousand islands in Sanskrit and Malayalam, and it is India's smallest Union Territory.
It is a single-district coral archipelago consisting of 36 islands, but only 10 of these islands are inhabited.
The entire land area of the archipelago measures just 32.62 square kilometers.
Judicial matters of this territory fall directly under the jurisdiction of the Kerala High Court.

The island chain sits in the Arabian Sea, located between 220 and 440 kilometers off the southwestern Malabar Coast of Kerala.
Kavaratti serves as the principal town and administrative headquarters for this single-district Union Territory.

The islands are coral atolls formed on the exposed northern peaks of the underwater Chagos-Laccadive Ridge.
Over millions of years, underlying volcanic seamounts submerged slowly while coral polyps built thick calcium carbonate reefs around their rims, creating low-lying ring atolls.

The archipelago contains three distinct sub-groups: Amindivi Islands in the north, Laccadive Islands in the center, and Minicoy Island in the south.
The Amindivi Islands group includes Amini, Chetlat, Kadmat, Kiltan, and Bitra.
The Laccadive Islands group consists of Androth, Kalpeni, Kavaratti, Agatti, and Bangaram, separated from Amindivi by the 11th parallel north.
Minicoy Island is an isolated southern atoll separated from the northern groups by the strategic Nine Degree Channel.
Despite having only 32.62 square kilometers of land and 132 kilometers of coastline, Lakshadweep controls 4,200 square kilometers of lagoons and 400,000 square kilometers of Exclusive Economic Zone.
Most indigenous residents belong to Scheduled Tribes, with northern islanders speaking Jeseri while Minicoy residents speak Mahl and follow matrilineal Marumakkathayam customs.
The island economy relies mainly on coconut farming, tuna pole-and-line fishing, and controlled eco-tourism.