The High Court on Wednesday directed the state Government to submit detailed report about status of digitization of revenue record in J&K.
The Court issued the directions in response to a PublicInterest litigation, seeking details records about status of digitisation ofrevenue record project, expenditure incurred on it and present position of theequipment acquired for digitisation.
The PIL was filed by an NGO, Jammu & Kashmir PeoplesForum through its Secretary General MM Shuja. He also sought direction that theCourt may monitor the process of digitization of revenue record, in publicinterest.
After hearing advocate ShafaqatNazir on behalf of the Forum,the division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rashid Ali Darissued notice to the State Government through its Commissioner SecretaryRevenue Department; Secretary Department of Law, Justice and ParliamentaryAffairs; Financial Commissioner Revenue; Divisional Commissioners for Kashmirand Jammu and Director Land Records Kashmir.
Seeking the direction to the Government to comply withprovisions contained in J&K Land Revenue Act, the Forum submitted that allDeputy Commissioners in the state should arrange maintenance and issuance ofPassbooks in favour of all the property holders of the state.
The Forum has sought direction for placing before the Courtentire details of mutations attested and recorded in all the Pathwarhalqas ofJ&K, without the support of any validly registered instrument as defined insection 138 of J&K Transfer of Property Act, in the first instance affectedfrom 1 January 2010 till date. It has also sought direction to SecretaryDepartment of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to exercise effective control and supervisionover licensed public notaries and ensure that periodical inspections areundertaken regarding their functioning with further direction to issue anappropriate instruction indicating, for public awareness, the type of documentswhich notaries public are empowered under law to register.
The Forum has submitted that it was aggrieved of allegedmalpractices in the Revenue Department, more particularly about attestation ofmutations, maintenance of records and non-adherence of the provisions of lawincluding Transfer of title of immoveable property, in violation of J&KTransfer of Property Act. Pointing out that there was non-compliance of the provisionscontained in different sections of J&K Land Revenue Act the Forum submittedit was aggrieved of non digitization of the revenue record and Registration ofdeeds/documents by Public Notaries not empowered to register the same relatingto transfer of immoveable property.