In a ruling of far-reaching consequences, the Revenue Board court has declared filing of transfer applications under provisions of the Land Revenue (LR) Act to different courts as illegal’

LUCKNOW: In a ruling of far-reaching consequences, the Revenue Board court has declared filing of transfer applications under provisions of the Land Revenue (LR) Act to different courts as illegal'.

A common practice in UP till now, the ruling is seen as a landmark judgment. This heralds a new beginning and hopes to put to end the ordeal being faced by the hapless at the hands of land sharks. Loopholes in the law were grossly misused by vested interests to intimidate genuine land owners.

In the wake of misuse of these provisions, the number of revenue related cases continued to pile up in different courts with the settlement in each case taking two to three decades. This became a major cause of unrest, leading to clashes on many occasions. In many cases, even widows could not get rightful claim on the land of their husbands.

The above ruling was given by member, judicial, Revenue Board, Sanjay Bhoosreddy in a case of Sudhir Tyagi vs Poonam Tyagi of Bijnor, over the title of land. The case came before the Revenue Board after being tossed at various levels, ranging from naib-tehsildar to district magistrate, Bijnor and commissioner, Moradabad division.

While dismissing the application, the court observed if transfer applications under sections 191/192 of the LR Act were entertained on the same grounds by courts of competent and concurrent jurisdiction it would amount to gross abuse of the process of the law. Thus, litigants could not be allowed to have the liberty of misusing provisions of the law to delay proceedings before lower courts on frivolous grounds by filing multiple transfer applications.

In accordance to provisions of the LR Act, transfer applications can be moved under its procedural sections of 191 and 192. These sections are invoked in case the petitioner thinks that he or she would not get the justice from a particular court due to various reasons, including that of prejudices, or undue pressure. This is why the provision for transfer of applications to similar court or superior court.

While Section 192 is applicable for the court of the SDM, Section 191 is meant for superior court presided by the divisional commissioner/ additional commissioner and the Revenue Board, which is apex judicial revenue body or also called as a court of record.
Similarly, there are other provisions of the LR Act like Section 34 under which transfer application is filed for mutation before the trial court - comprising naib tehsildar and tehsildar in this case.

For boundary demarcation and correction of clerical mistakes, cases are filed before the SDM under sections 41 and 33/39 respectively. For correction of revenue land maps, Section 28 is invoked to file case before district magistrate or additional district magistrate.

Though enacted with good intentions, these provisions were grossly misused due to lacuna in the law. But with a clear-cut ruling on the issue now, this becomes a case law for the entire state and it is expected that their misuse would be put under check.