Munmun Kaur
Published On: December 28, 2021 at 12:20 IST
The Karnataka High Court while hearing an Appeal has held that a revenue officer cannot constitute himself as a revenue court just because he holds an office, not inferior in rank to that of a tahsildar.
The Appeal was filed by Taluk Panchayat, Chamarajanagar. It challenged the order passed by a single judge along with a direction issued to make entries of the names in the record of rights by way of inheritance khata.
Apparently, the name of the owner of the property was abruptly deleted by the revenue authorities and later proceedings were initiated to re-enter the names in the RTC. The order for restoration of the names was given in November 2006 by the Deputy Commissioner, Chamarajanagar district, who was sitting as a Revenue Court. The order was given under Section 136 (3) of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act.
Subsequently, a succeeding Deputy Commissioner passed another order, rejecting the revision application in June 2007 under Section 25 of the Act.
A Division Bench of Justice P S Dinesh Kumar and Justice P Krishna Bhat, observed that the order by the first Deputy Commissioner was not challenged before competent authority or Court.
The Bench further observed that the power as stated u/s 25 of the Act is to be exercised by the Revenue Court and not just an individual revenue officer.
