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

Patta transfer applicants are suffering at the hands of corrupt officers

There is no respect for Rule of Law in some of Taluka Offices of Tamil Nadu in relation to change of Patta or mutation of immovable property situated in areas under its revenue jurisdiction. As per Citizen Charter of Revenue Department of Tamil Nadu, the Deputy Tahsildar is bound to make necessary changes in the Patta within 15 days of receiving the application from the applicant or owner of the property. However, in reality, nothing happens without paying the bribe to the authorities. Even the online application system for effecting changes in Patta of agricultural lands also did not deter them from demanding the bribe from the applicant.

Role of Village Administrative Officer

Although the final authority for making changes in the Patta is Deputy Tahsildar, the Village Administrative Officer of a particular Revenue Village needs to examine the field as well as property documents and gives the report to the Deputy Tahsildar for effecting necessary changes in the said Patta or revenue record. In other words, an application for Patta will have to pass through the Village Administrative Officer of the respective revenue villages, where the said land is located.

Misuse of power

By taking advantage of this situation, some Village Administrative Officers receive the bribe from innocent citizens ranging from Rs.2000/- to Rs.20000/- according to the properties involved and also according to the parties involved. If an applicant is poor or uneducated, then the officer tries to extract the largest sum as a bribe. In spite of getting the bribe from the poor person, the officer will treat him/her in an undignified way.

The application of the applicant who refuses to pay a bribe would be kept in a pending mode for months. Then suddenly, he/she will get an SMS from the Taluka Office/Deputy Tahsildar stating “your application has been rejected”. And no reasons will be given at all. Thereby violating the principle of natural justice of the applicant. An applicant has to make the extra effort of sending an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 for seeking reasons for rejection of his'/her Patta application.

I get to know that the Village Administrative Officer collects the bribe and share a particular percentage with the Deputy Tahsildar, who is the final authority for executing changes in the revenue records/Pattas. In fact, few Village Administrative Officers openly seek bribe by stating that “I need to submit accounts of bribe taken to the Deputy Tahsildar” while justifying his demand for a bribe from the applicants.

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Cost of not giving bribe

Because of this illegal and inhuman act of revenue officers, many rural citizens are not able to avail of various government schemes and have to face the inconvenience of taking Xerox copies of voluminous registered property documents for every loan application. If a person possesses Patta in his name, then he does not need to provide registered copies of property documents for getting loans like crop loans, cattle loans, cattle-shed loans, etc. By providing a single copy of the Patta would be enough for proving the possession of a particular property. Therefore, the applicant who pays the bribe for getting the patta transferred faces losses for a single time whereas the one who defies corrupt officers ends up a loser for his life until some honest officer considers his lawful application as per rule of law.

Therefore, the time has come to report such incidences to their higher authority so that they can be punished as per the law. If the higher authority fails to act, then we should consider approaching the Vigilance Commission or even Court seeking appropriate relief as per the procedure established by the law.

#Patta #bribe #DeputyTasildar #VAO