The High Court adjourned the matter to June 24 to allow the association to amend the petition and bring the original land owner Kashinath Khalap on record as a respondent as well as the panchayat of Querim-Tiracol.

The advocate for the association pressed for a stay on the ‘illegal’ road under construction by Leading Hotels, after which the court declared “any construction that Leading Hotels may make will be subject to further orders and they will not be able to claim equity”, staying the matter till June 24.

The association in its PIL has challenged the hotel for bypassing provisions of the Goa Agricultural Tenancy Act 1974 and Goa Land Use Act 1991 claiming a fraud on both the Acts.

The entire village of Tiracol, measuring 13,84,000 square meters, with tenanted land comprising 11,27,097 square meters, was sold to Leading Hotels with the sale deed mentioning there were no tenants or mundkars. But with 90 percent of the land being tenanted as on October 8, 1976 (Tillers Day), the association is now fighting the efforts of some agents of Leading Hotels who had “illegally freed tenanted land from the provisions of the Tenancy Act and took steps to inform the authorities of the nature of the land and the bar on its conversion to non-agriculture.”

In their petition, the association has provided examples of documents showing tenancies as wrong entries and therefore obtaining tenancy-free certificates. One of the prayers of the petition is to quash and set aside the negative declarations that they claim were obtained by fraud.

The petition also challenges the Town Planning permissions for the golf course, consent to establish golf course issued by the Pollution Control Board, environment clearances issued by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and sanads issued by the collector, North Goa.