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Dharam Singh (D) Thr. Lrs. & Ors. v. Prem Singh (D) Thr. Lrs.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 139Decided 5 Feb 2019
Civil Appeal No. 516 of 2009
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice K.M. Joseph

Background

The dispute concerned a small plot of land in Village Gyansu, Uttarkashi, that had originally belonged to one Tulsa Devi, whose land escheated to the State after she died without heirs. The appellants' predecessor, Amar Singh, had been recorded as being in possession of the plot, but a competent revenue officer later ordered deletion of his name from the records after finding the entry had been made surreptitiously; the land was instead given in exchange to the respondents' predecessor, whose own land had been acquired by the government. The appellants nonetheless sued for an injunction, relying on a later Patwari's record entry recognising their family as tenants ("asami"/"sirdar") of the plot, and the trial court decreed in their favour, but the High Court reversed that decree on the defendants' appeal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that statutory tenancy ("asami") rights under Section 10 of the 1960 Act required a person to be validly recorded as "occupant" at the relevant revision of records, and since the competent Assistant Record Officer had already ordered deletion of Amar Singh's name as a forged/surreptitious entry, he could never have validly acquired that status, regardless of whether the order was later carried into the physical records. A subsequent Patwari's entry recognising "sirdari" rights was legally worthless because a Patwari has no authority to confer such status. The Court also noted documentary evidence, including Amar Singh's own signed 1956 statement, in which he admitted relinquishing possession of the disputed plot. Finding no error in the High Court's reasoning, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal.

Lesson Learnt

A revenue record entry that was later ordered to be deleted because it was found forged or fraudulent cannot be relied upon to claim tenancy or ownership rights, even if the deletion was never physically carried out in the register, and a lower-level official like a Patwari cannot create legal rights beyond their authority.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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