Revenue Department’s continuous disregard of rule of law

In my previous post, I pointed about how even online patta transfer applicants are made to suffer at the hands of some corrupt officials. Now, in this post, I will be discussing the existing scenario about the indirect Patta transfer application which is made through the Registration department via Sub-Registrar Office. 

Patta transfer application through Sub-Registrar’s Office

As per Revenue Standing Order -31, Rule-9, whenever a person buys an immovable property by a deed of conveyance, or gets property through family partition or gift or transfer of possession by any other kind of instrument and registers it at the concerned Sub-Registrar’s office, the Sub-Registrar send the document to the Taluka Office for making necessary changes in the Patta of the concerned property, which is maintained by the Taluka Office or Deputy Zonal Tasildar, in whose jurisdiction the land in question is located. Similarly, if a particular property’s boundary gets altered due to changes in ownership arising out of sales or family partition etc., then during its registration, the Sub-Registrar also collects Sub-Division fee of Rs.40/ per survey number and forward the same as well to the concerned Taluka Office for effecting sub-division of the said immovable property.

Duty of the Deputy Tasildar

Once Deputy Zonal Tasildar gets the copy of the Patta transfer & Sub-Division (if any) applications and documents related to change in ownership of immovable property situated under its jurisdiction, then he needs to treat such application as if he had received it by the revenue officer directly. Then, with the help of the Village Administrative Officer of the concerned revenue village, the Deputy Zonal Tasildar has to make changes (mutation) in the Patta, by entering the new owner in the record. Similarly, the Deputy Zonal Tasildar will have to ensure that the property gets surveyed and sub-divided through the Surveyor and Village Administrative Officer and allot a new Survey Number to the said property upon receiving applications from the Sub-Registrar. This thing needs to be done within 15 days of receiving the applications from the Sub-Registrar.

Revenue authorities violating the rule of law

Most of the citizens in Tamil Nadu do not know about the existence of this rule and as a result, the revenue authorities are not taking it seriously enough to effect mutation on receiving applications from the Sub-Registrar’s Office. Revenue authorities like Village Administrative Officers (VAO) and Deputy Thsildars also compel citizens to apply freshly online. Because of this, thousands of citizens in the state of Tamil Nadu are spending their hard-earned money and time in applying for the transfer of Patta's and Sub-Division of their immovable property, although they have already paid for patta transfer and sub-division for their acquired property at the time of registration.

Because of this disrespect of law on the part of revenue authorities many citizens are in spite of being the owner of the property does not have patta in their name.

Not even obeying Judiciary’s pronouncement

On 06.02.2015, the Honourable Madras High Court (Madurai Division) in the case titled, Consumer Rights Protection Council v Tamil Nadu Government [Writ Petition (MD) No.8250 of 2008 and M.P (MD) No. 1 of 2008], held that once the Sub-Registrar is entrusted to collect a fee for patta transfer during the registration of the property as per G.O.Ms. No.916 CT & RE Department, dated 23.08.1984, then there is no requirement of paying again at the Taluka Office for the same purpose of patta transfer.

Still, most of Deputy Tasildars are not adhering to the above said judicial pronouncement, thereby acting against the rule of law, and in spite of this, no officer got punished for such a continuous disregard of rule of law.

I am also handling one such case, where the Sub-Division fee of Rs.40 paid for each survey number at the time of registration of the property at the Sub-Registrar Office (way back in 2005, 2009 & 2011). However, nothing happened till date. Upon seeking the status through RTI application, Deputy Tahsildar replies that Sub-Division can be made only if you apply through an online mode.

#VAO #Pattatransfer #Tasildar