Content Page Nos

Table- 5.5: Structure Of The Land Record Administration

Director

(Field operation) (Head quarters) (Map-Reproduction)

Settlement Officers Asst. Director Dy. Director

Charge Officer (A.D.M) Section Officer Asst. Director (Tech.)

& Asst.Director (Adm.)

Asst. Settlement officers Assistants Other Officials

Circle Inspector - cum - Kanungo

Inspectors

Amins
Recommendations

1. 
   There should be mobility of staff amongst the different wings at the village, Mandal, district and at the Divisional level so that the experience of one field is brought to the other.
   
2. 
   Even at the State level there is need to examine the programme structure of Revenue Department and remove the duplicity in a time bound manner.
   

5.12 Withdrawal from the Rural Areas
5.12.1 The Committee observed that in many states and areas the Village Officers or the Mandal Revenue Offices do not reside at their respective headquarters. Instead these officers were found to reside at the district headquarters. The regular interface of officers withwith the tenants or the Raiyats at the village level, which is so essential for the system to function in a routine course or with the Panchayats is missing. There is no accessibility of the revenue officials to the tenants.
5.12.2 While the dispute is related to the field situation it is normally decided at the Mandal level or above travelling right up to the Board of Revenue where they exist. In State after State the raiayats complained that the greatest problem is to find the Patwari this lack of accessibility breeds gives rise to the myriad problems associated with the revenue administration. In most disputes there is no spot inspection and the entire evidence is taken either under the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code or under some other similar law.
5.12.3 The Committee is also constrained to observe while some of the Revenue Courts have changed over to the local language the higher Revenue Courts and the Judicial Courts by and large continued to use English, a language still not understood by the masses. This leads one to the conclusion that the Land Revenue Administration and our management of land is fully urban based and colonial in character. Such a Land Management System is not up to the task of implementing the reformist legislations and discharges the Management of Land with sensitivity towards the landless poor and the small and marginal farmers.
5.12.4 It is observed that the Land Management have remained largely bureaucratically driven over the last 200 years and the legacy was inherited by independent India. The normal argument is that the sanctity of the land records are inviolate and they are only safe in the hands of revenue officials/bureaucrats. This argument does not buy good for the simple reason that the land records as it has been pointed out in the study and in all Committees are in shambles and do not reflect the ground realities. This failure has to be accepted by the present set of land managers.
5.12.5 Linked to this is the exclusiveness of the Land Management System. The Committee feels the need for greater association of the people’s institutions and public representatives to be associated with the process of recording of rights and their updation at the grassroots. Some of the stray evidence of such association is in the State of Andhra Pradesh where in the Bhu Bharati Programme the Sarpanch has been made the Chairperson of the Dispute Resolution Committee. In fact the Bhu Bharati has emerged as a parallel movement to the Panchayat. In the State of Rajasthan the Sarpanch has been given the power to approve mutations after registration by the Sub Registrar who is the Tehsildar in this case. This virtually results in dilatory process and politicization of the simplified law. The power stands vested in the person of the Sarpanch whereas it should have been vested either in the Gram Sabha or in the Standing Committee dealing with land.
Recommendations

1. 
   All revenue work should necessarily be carried out in the language of the State.
   
2. 
   All Court should also be in the language of the State;
   
3. 
   All records should be on the Panchayat Portal in open source.
   
4. 
   A copy of the RoR should be available with the Panchayat for inspection.
   

5.13 Marginalisation of the People’s Institutions
5.13.1 The Report of the Committee on Revitalization of Land Revenue Administration had also noted this major flaw and had recommended: “We believe that keeping in mind the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution, the unique characteristics of the Indian Polity and the national consensus that has been reached in the matter of democratic decentralization, the right step will be to transfer Land Administration in due course to Panchayati Raj Institutions. But considering that the 73^rd Amendment to the Constitution does not include land revenue in the list of subjects to be transferred to Panchayats, that there is still considerable resistance at the political and bureaucratic levels to the transfer of even the listed subjects to Panchayats and that Panchayats are in their infancy…….we suggest that after watching the working of Panchayati Raj Institutions for a period of five years or so, Land Administration should be transferred to Panchayats.” The Bandyopadhyay Committee has also recommended a major role for the Gram Panchayats in Land Reforms. He has recommended that a Block Level Committee for resolution of disputes should be headed by the President of the Panchayati Samithi while the Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat concerned to be the Member Secretary.
5.14 Role of the Panchayats
5.14.1 Article 243 G depicts Panchayats as institutions of self-government and provides that the State Legislature may empower them with devolution of powers and responsibilities that may enable them to undertake:- (a) the preparation of plans for economic development and social justice; (b) the implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrusted to them including those in relation to the matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule. The different States have empowered their Panchayats differently. The State of Panchayat Report 2008 gives an assessment of the capabilities of the Panchayats in all the States/Union Territories. While in some of the States the Panchayats have been adequately empowered with functions, functionalities and finances as detailed in Schedule XI of the Constitution and have taken the form of full-fledged government. However, as noted earlier the Panchayats have been kept carefully away from the land matters and their association with land management is incidental. On the other hand as the State of the Panchayat Report notes there is a strong agencification of Panchayats which undermines their governance role.
5.14.2 The case studies conducted by the Committee in two Panchayats namely Heure Bazaar in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra and in Gopalpura in Churu district of Rajasthan, it has been noted that the Panchayats have gained in prestige and status. The President of Heure Bazaar Panchayat Shri Popatbhai Pawar is a Post-graduate who has opted to stay back in the village. He has been elected uncontested since 1989 as the Sarpanch of the Panchayat. His Panchayat has become fully literate; thus 3 BPL families in the village; out migration has stopped totally and there is reverse migration of 40 families who had left the village decades ago; the employment opportunity have increased enhanced educational facilities and there are 3 doctors and 73 teachers and a large number of people employed in army. The Panchayat has full control over the wasteland and forest land and they have taken of the entire area for watershed management and for afforestation programme. It has initiated incentives for protection of trees and enhancing water bearing capacities of the soil. The Panchayat has also imposed the condition that no land will be sold except to the landless and the Panchayat will also have a role in deciding the prices to be paid. This has completely eliminated landlessness in the village and ensured fair exit for the landholders.
5.14.3 In Gopalpura the Sarpanch Ms.Savita Rathi, a first time Sarpanch has completely resolved all conflicts in the village. She has involved the villager in protection of the common lands and the forest lands. She resisted the efforts of the State Governments to grant mining lease to private parties on Panchayat and forest land and went to the High Court. The villagers of almost 20 Panchayats have united to protect their common lands. The Sarpanch of Gopalpura has prepared a development plan for the village and has also developed a land use pattern for the village. She is constrained by the lack of untied grants. Her greatest concern is that the villagers must have freedom from the ‘oppressive reign of the Patwari’ who is the root cause of many disputes arising in the rural society. She would also like to have custody of all waste and common lands and would like to have the authority to decide the land revenue in the village, realize and appropriate the same for the Panchayat work.
5.14.4 Vesting of control over the village lands and the wastelands in the Panchayats is a contentious issue and was reflected even within the deliberations of the Committee. Before vesting all common lands and wastelands with the Panchayats, we need to look at the track records of how the Panchayats have managed the land that is already under their control i.e. the community pasturelands (called ‘Charnot’ or by other local names). The data/evidence from most States have shown that Panchayats have tended to succumb to pressures from local elite and have not been good custodians of these lands. Without looking into the factors leading to poor governance by Panchayats of existing lands, it will not be appropriate to hand them control of yet more lands. This argument would also be applicable to the powers of removable of encroachment over village land and adjudication of disputes. The argument in favour of the Panchayats runs as follows. The common and the wastelands belong to the community and have to managed in their interest. They do not belong to the Government. From the time immemorial these lands were being managed by the community till the British took away these rights in the Permanently Settled areas and vested them into the proprietor of the estate. On the abolition of the intermediary interests these rights have passed on to the Government. In the Mahalwari areas these rights continued to reside with the community. There are substantive areas of Shamilat Deh lands in the erstwhile Punjab State which are well managed and yield handsome amounts to the Panchayats. The Panchayats represent the people and express the community will. The charges of elite capture may be true as many instances but it is also true that functional Panchayats are antidotes to interlocked elite structure. A number of studies indicate that the Panchayats have led to empowerment of women, the Dalits and other weaker sections. The Committee, during the course of its enquiry has found the existing system of land management not only lacking in transparency but also governed by political economy. It may be apprehended that the Panchayats are subject to elite capture. Such charges would be equally applicable to present management which remains largely in the hands of bureaucracy for which evidence has been forth coming befor the Committee. It could also be argued that only when the people’s respresentatives are associated with the process of recording of people’s rights, that they will have gained in experience and responsibility.
5.14.5 The Committee is strongly of the opinion that land has to be freed from its semi-colonial management structure, and the villagers from the over lordship of the Patwari. It was rightly remarked that while the land is in village, the parties to a dispute are in a village, the dispute exists on ground why should Court at the District or State Headquarters take years to decide an issue which is a matter of common knowledge in the village and which could have been resolved in one sitting of the Gram Sabha. It has been rightly remarked by the Sarpanch Gopalpura that the disputes are mostly creation of the Patwari. Our Court system is continues to be colonial in its language, dress, bearing, procedures and orientation. There is an urgent need to involve the people and their institutions in form of Panchayats both for the purposes of maintenance of records and ensuring proper management.
5.14.6 In some States like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, etc. the management of wasteland is vested into the Panchayats. There are instances where the Gram Sabha lands have become encroached but the Panchayats have not been able to get such encroachments vacated.. This, however, is more on account of the fact that usually the support that should have been forthcoming from the administration is missing. The Committee has arrived at the conclusion, despite these handicaps, the Gram Sabhas have been able to manage their lands better. The Panchayats need to be vested with authority and administrative support in order to make a success of their tasks.

Recommendations

1. 
   Full rights of management to vest in the Gram Sabha of the Panchayat which will include the village Wasteland, Common Lands, land under public utilities, Government Land, community lands, dedicated lands etc.
   
2. 
   The management rights will include settlement of land on annual basis or for such terms as be deemed desirable by the State Government, development of such lands or such other measures that the State Government may deem it fit.
   
3. 
   There should be a Standing Committee dealing with land issues including management of waste land, common lands, etc.
   
4. 
   The right of Settlement of Land should rest with the Gram Sabha of the Panchayat
   
5. 
   No settlement of Gram Sabha land should be made on a permanent basis. The settlee and his descendants should have the right to use and inheritance.
   
6. 
   Land Settlement may be conducted on periodic basis.
   
7. 
   The Gram Sabha should have the power to evict all encroachers from public land.
   
8. 
   The State/Central Government should provide the Panchayats assistance to enhance their capacities.
   
9. 
   The Panchayats should be entitled to draw upon and utilise the funds of the NLRMP.
   

5.15 Inaccurate and Obsolete Land Records
5.15.1 On account of a structural deficiencies the Land Management System is highly error prone and inaccurate. This has been well established by means of the State surveys conducted by the NIRD. Koneru Ranga Rao Committee in Andhra Pradesh reports that land being a dynamic entity changes keep taking place in ownership extent and boundaries and classification unless these changes were promptly captured the land records become absolute within no time. Such deficient or absolute records do not resolve conflict but add to them. The Committee also found by means of surveys conducted that in certain areas the transactions which have taken place say after 1948 have not been recorded for more than 60 years now. In Bihar, D. Bandyopadhyay Committee found that the mutations are simply not matching the changes taking place on account of sale transfer lease and inheritance. The cases are not being filed as the process involved is so irksome, time consuming and expensive that it frightens away the Raiyats. Even the cases that are filed, their disposal rate is very slow. In the year 1945 the then Government has instructed that a drive be undertaken to get the mutation cases disposed of as a consequence of which 11,73,143 cases were filed in the year 2005-6 and 19,25,021 cases in the year 2006-7. The figures have been given in Table-5. 6 below.
Table- 5. 6: Status of Mutation Cases in the State of Bihar (2002-2007)

Financial year	Total No. of cases filed	Total No. of cases disposed	No. of pending cases
2002-03	315718	300034	15684
2003-2004	463930	453928	10002
2004-2005	496420	484710	11710
2005-2006	1172143	1123751	48392
2006-2007	1925021	1867070	57551

5.15.2 It is to be noted that there are provision for linking the registration process to mutations. A Landlords Certificate Fee is charged at the time of registration for undertaking change in record. The instructions are that a copy of the registration order will be sent to the concerned Revenue Official who will start proceedings for mutation suo motto. Despite these instructions the number of mutation cases filed with revenue authorities do not match the number of transactions that have been registered. It is noteworthy that the number of inheritance cases and the unregistered transactions in land would outweigh the registered transactions. Assuming that 10 per cent of such registered documents would not relate to land transactions requiring mutation of names, roughly 9 lakh potential mutation cases had been generated annually by such registrations. Now if one compared the cases of mutation filed in the years 2002-03 to 2004-05 one would find that yearly there were annual backlog of mutation cases of average 5 lakhs. Obviously, officers and staffs responsible for disposal of mutation either willingly or because of some other reasons, failed to take cognizance of these mutation cases and did not act properly. Either the Sub-registrars did not notify the Revenue officers of the transactions that had taken place or the concerned revenue officers did not pay any heed to the information they received from the Sub-Registrar offices. It only indicated that there was serious lapse on the part of the controlling officers to ensure that documents registered did get reflected in appropriate revenue records through mutation. Table-5.7 below indicates the registered transactions for the same period.

Table- 5. 7: The Number of Registered Transactions

2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
1010074	1038325	1020132	989859	1004263

Recommendations
(i) The Gram Sabha should be allowed to sanction mutations in undisputed cases.

(ii) In disputed cases the matter should be referred either to the Nyaya Panchayat or where the Nyaya Panchayat does not exist to the Dispute Resolution Committee of the Panchayat for arbitration and adjudication.

(iii) At the higher level there should be a Board of Appeal comprising elected Panchayat members and revenue officials.

(iv) There should be correction of the record-of-rights every 6 months where in the corrections should be read out in the Gram Sabha.

(v) The Khesra Girdawari/Adangal should be prepared and approved by the Gram Sabha.
5.16 Lack of Transparency
5.16.1 The creation and correction of records are made under one law or the other of the State Legislature. This also involves a quasi-judicial process wherein the orders are appealable. However, perusal of court records indicates that the process is being undertaken more in judicial manner than one involving correction of the rights of the people. In a number of cases the court records were found to be pending for an inordinate time on account of lack of availability of the revenue officer to hold the court for reasons of law and order and engagement with other tasks. It has already been mentioned that the revenue officials are also responsible for discharge of a number of other functions including census, law and order, holding loan melas and other miscellaneous activities. In a number of cases the court orders were also found to be written in English. The parties involved were not found to fully comprehend the orders. The orders were so cryptically written that at many times it was not possible to understand as to why the rights of some had been overlooked in favour of others. This indicates that there is lack of transparency in the the Land Management System. The records-od-rights are not mere documents by instruments to safeguard the rights of the marginalized and the poor. There is a contestation over land amongst the landless and the weak with the rural elite over the issue of land. Such system of land management which is lacking in transparency, acts against the interest of the landless, the weak and the poor and rather reinforces the rural elite.
5.16.2 Even after 60 years of Independence, most of the revenue laws and instructions continued in English. Even where translations were made into Hindi and other regional languages they are found to be more complex and incomprehensible as compared to the original work in English. There were no efforts feasible to create legal literacy in respect of the revenue laws and instructions through self-taught mode in simple local language. Such a step was never under the contemplation of the Revenue Officials. To the contrary there was a persistent complaint that the revenue administration went out of its way to keep its records and its legal system out of reach of the common masses.