Central Information Commission
Mrsurender Pal Singh vs Gnctd on 29 December, 2014
2. The Appellant through his RTI application dated 18092013 had sought for information on 12 Points Viz i) In Kamabavala Village how many plot holders are there ii) What is the extent of the plot has been allotted to each plot holders iii) After allocating the plots, what is extent of the land left for the agriculture iv) How much land has been used for Plots, etc. The PIO gave point wise information on 09102013. Being unsatisfied, the appellant filed the First Appeal. First Appellate Authority directed PIO on 19122013 to show entire record. Seeking copies of information, appellant has approached the Commission. DECISION
3. Both the parties made their submissions. The appellant claimed that he was not given required information for one and half years and alleged corruption behind hiding of records. Representative Mr Anup Thakur submitted that he has the records, but therein in which no issue raised by the appellant can be given. Under his jurisdiction, the SDM has 16 villages to govern and more than 800 Khatas. He claimed that property details of other persons available in land records of the village constitute the 'third party' information of various owners and thus could not be given under RTI to the appellant. The Commission finds this claim is baseless and not legal as the land records with the Government, contains the names of owners, details of the extent of land, date of purchase of the land, khasra numbers etc CIC/SA/A/2014/000453 Page 2 which are public documents and they can not be considered as third party information. The land is open and transaction of change of ownership of a particular piece of land is registered with Registrar for being recorded as admissible evidence of that ownership for public to know. Registration is notificatio to society and evidence of the transaction and not an affair to be kept secret. If the argument of PIO is accepted the registration of transactions of sale and mortgage would never be available to people in general. That will defeat the purpose of recording the transaction at all. Revenue department is supposed to survey, map the possession, prepare and update the ownershop and possession related records in villages with reference to agriculture and to be kept for various purposes including the ascertaining of land rights.
4. Being a public record held by the Revenue Department, it is the duty of the public authority to provide access to this public. Especially when the boundaries or extent are in dispute, the revenue records will help ascertaining the land rights to be properly implemented. When records are not properly maintained or not updated it would lead to huge corruption as apprehended by the appellant. It is the duty of the revenue department to make all updated land records open for scrutiny of the people. Transparency is the only way by which corruption can be prevented. Hence the record should be made easily accessible to the people, so that anybody can point out the discrepancies/mistakes/conflicts/contradictions which can be corrected. In fact by opening of land records to the public, the Department will get the information from the people regarding the defects, if any, which can be rectified after due verification. The Public Authority should understand this benefit and make it easy to have access to the information.
Transparency of Land Records: The Legal Duty
5. Transparency of the land records is the mandate as per the Right to Information Act, 2005 and Public Records Act, 1993. In fact this is also the objective behind the statutory responsibility of voluntarily disclosing the information under section 4(1)(b)of RTI Act. Various Revenue Acts also specifically provided for right to information about land records and even offered to give copies free of cost.
6. The Delhi Revenue Act, 1954 Sections 20 & 21 says:
20. Record of rights (1) There shall be a recordofrights for each village subject to such exceptions as may be prescribed. (2) The recordofrights shall consist of a register of all persons cultivating or otherwise occupying land specifying the particulars required by Section
40.
21. The Annual Register (1) The Deputy Commissioner shall maintain the recordof rights, and for that purpose shall annually, or at such longer intervals as the Chief Commissioner may direct, causes to be prepared an amended register mentioned in Section 20; and the register so prepared shall be called the Annual Register.
(2) The Deputy Commissioner shall cause to be recorded in the Annual Register all changes that may take place and any transaction they may affect any of the rights or interests recorded, and shall therein correct any errors proved to have been made in the recordofrights or in any annual Register previously prepared.
(3) No such change or transaction shall be recorded without the order of the Deputy Commissioner, Revenue Assistant or, as hereinafter provided, of the Tahsildar or any other Court as constituted under any law for the time being in force.
26. Correction of mistake or error in Annual Register The Deputy Commissioner may, on his own motion and, shall, on the application of any person, correct any mistake or error in the Annual Register.
31. Obligation to furnish information necessary for the preparation of records Any person, whose rights, interests or liabilities are required by any enactment for the time being in force or by any rule made under any such enactment to be entered in any official register by a Kanungo or Patwari, shall be bound to furnish, on the requisition of the Kanungo or Patwari or of any Revenue Officer engaged in compiling the register, all information necessary for the correct compilation thereof.
32. Inspection of records All maps, fieldbooks, lists and registers kept under this Act shall be open to public inspection at such hours and on such conditions as to fees or otherwise as the Chief Commissioner may prescribe.
34. Record Officers The Chief Commissioner may appoint an officer, hereinafter called the Record Officer, to be in charge of the record operations or the survey, or both, as the case may be, in any are and as many Assistant Record Officers as to him may seem fit, and such officers shall exercise all the powers conferred on them by this Act so long as such area is under record or survey operations, as the case may be.
7. Transparency of land records is a very significant and essential issue that every revenue officer in every district has to follow as a matter of rule. Basically, it is a principle of administrative law, which is made now, a statutory obligation of Public Authority. It is the duty of the public authorities to disclose suo moto the land records. Land Laws and Right to information
8. The A.P. Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act 1971, provided for inspection and copies of the ROR (Record of Rights) saying ROR to be open for inspection by public. Certified copies to be given on payment of fee.
Section 7 Inspection and copies of the Record ofRights: Subject to such rules as may be made in this behalf, the record ofrights shall beopen to inspection of thepublic at reasonable hours free of any charge and certified copies thereof or certified extracts therefrom shall be given to all persons including the credit agencies applhying for the same on payment of such fees as may be prescribed. The AP Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Rules, 1989, Rule 24(2) makes it clear that "the Record of Rights shall be open for inspection of the public free of charge during office hours on all working days.
9. The Commission would like to recall the various schemes and programmes that were undertaken in Andhra Pradesh Government wherein some of the villages have transcribed land records on the walls of revenue offices/panchayat offices in villages which helped the people to point out the defects in names, boundaries, extent of land etc which ultimately led to rectification by the Department resulting in reduction of land related disputes. Writing Land Records on Wall
10. In Warangal District of Telangana, Joint Collector Ms Karuna Vakati IAS wrote during November 2011 to CEO SERP Hyderabad on wall writing of land records as follows:
A significant percentage of the poor are not legal owners of the land that they till, which means that their names do not find entries as land owners (or even as occupants in most cases) in the land records. This leaves them outside the network of state programs like institutional funding, crop insurance etc. Ensuring land rights to the poor is a set of administrative processes that need to be taken up under different Land Acts, an exercise which is being carried out in Warangal. Two major impediments exist in doing this on one hand the ignorance of the poor people on the modalities of getting their name into the 'occupant and owner'and indeed on the whole aspect of 'getting the ownership of land' and on the other the natural inclination of the functionaries within the system to hold onto (and worse deny) information as a means of power.
Placing of land records in public domain would be an important step to address the above mentioned issues. A pilot exercise of painting the 7 important columns of the pahanis (including survey number, total extent of land, name of owner, names of occupants, extents etc.,) on the village walls has been carried out in Goparajpalli village of Janagaon mandal and Sudanpally village of Hasanparthy Mandal of Warangal district. Subsequent to the painting gramsabhas were conducted. In the gramsabhas several farmers filed applications for correction of pahani entries. While there was angst and protests amongst those whose names was not featured as owners/occupants on the whole the villagers welcomed the move to place land record details in public domain. Such a public display would CIC/SA/A/2014/000453 Page 6 increase awareness of public and generate discussion and debate about the land ownership details, whereabouts of government land etc and would ensure that people demand for their rights and entitlements and force the revenue administration to correct the record. Against the backdrop of the public information, land literacy would become a meaningful and relevant. Hence it is decided to paint the details of land records in every village.
11. Indira Kranthi Patham entered into an agreement with Painters Association of District for writing the record of rights on the walls in villages. The MoU says:
For better implementation of Koneru Ranga Rao Committee recommendation to access the Land and in securing the poor Land rights the District administration has planned an innovative idea " Goda Meda Pahani " ( Wall writing of Pahani) which aimed at.
A) Transparency of Revenue Records B) Literacy of people over their Land rights.
C) Updation of records.
D) Solvation of poor Land issues.
This exercise has given enormous results in two villages and the CEO SERP has promised to release funds to this programme in phased manner through IKPDRDA. Accordingly a memorandum of understanding between Project Director, DRDAIKP, Warangal and President, Secretary of Painters Association Warangal District is entered in to.
12. Report of the Working Group on Transparency and Accountability (Central Employment Guarantee Council) submitted on 7th July 2010 to MoRD made the following recommendations.
a. All relevant information regarding the MGNREGA must be proactively displayed (Mandatory) and made accessible through different modes and medium, ensuring local language compatibility and keeping in mind the needs of the semi literate, the illiterate and the differently abled.
b. Information must be authenticated, updated with reasonable periodicity, and
put across in a manner and format that is easy to understand. Towards that end, special proformas and formats need to be developed.
c. Relevant information must be appropriately displayed from the worksite, the village and the gram panchayat office, the block and district level, right up to the state and national level.
d. It must also be kept in mind that, as far as possible, all decision making should be done in public in the full view of all interested stake holders. This is the best way of ensuring that decisions are not only fair but also appear to be fair. e. Recognising that, despite best efforts, both the modes of providing information and of getting feedback can be corrupted or blocked, multiple modes and routes must be used in order to make it progressively difficult to inhibit the free flow of information to and from the people.
f.
13. The Working group is deeply concerned about the rapidly increasing levels of corruption in the MGNREGA. MGNREGA expenditure is likely to exceed Rs 39,000 crores per year. If the Transparency and Accountability provisions are not taken seriously, the entire edifice will be undermined by a range corrupt practices from denial of basic rights, to huge scams. In the process the poor workers of India for whom this Act was brought into place, will suffer and lose faith in the Act, and its capacity to deliver.
14. Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development, S E (19(E) has published in Gazette of India on 3rd January 2014 providing for mandatory proactive disclosure of basic CIC/SA/A/2014/000453 Page 8 information using Janata Information System which is inclusive of Display at each work site, Display on prominent walls, Display on boards at Gram panchayat office and Display on the website facilitating verification, correction or updating. Several villages in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh displayed the basic information on the walls in the village helping social audit to be effective.
'Public' Records
15. Sections 74 and 76 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872 provided right to information about public documents explaining what and how of exercising that right. Prior to Right to Information Act, 2005 this is was the real right to information available to the people regarding public documents.
Section 74 of the Evidence Act defining public documents reads as under: "PUBLIC documents. The following documents are public documents (1) documents forming the acts or records of the acts (i) of the sovereign authority (ii) of official bodies and tribunals, and (iii) of public officers, legislative, judicial and executive {of any part of India or of the Commonwealth}, or of a foreign country; (2) public records kept {in any State} of private documents"
76. Certified copies of public documents.--Every 1public officer having the custody of a public document, which any person has a right to inspect, shall give that person on demand a copy of it on payment of the legal fees therefor, together with a certificate written at the foot of such copy that it is a true copy of such document or part thereof, as the case may be, and such certificate shall be dated and subscribed by such officer with his name and his official title, and shall be sealed, whenever such officer is authorized by law to make use of a seal; and such copies so certified shall be called certified copies."
Explanation.--Any officer who, by the ordinary course of official duty, is authorized to deliver such copies, shall be deemed to have the custody of such documents within the meaning of this section.
16. Registration department registers transactions over immoveable properties, which are legally considered as public documents and any body can have access to it as a matter of right. Encumbrance certificates could be sought by any one. The register of marriages is also a public document and there is nothing private or personal about the legal wedlock of a couple. Registration is meant for being a notice to society about the fact of marriage or transaction over the property which offers admissible evidence in court of law. The registers at Registration Department and Land records at Revenue Department and public have right to access to those documents.
17. In view of the above law, facts, problems, need and policies laid down by the Government of India and various states including Delhi, the Commission holds that the land records containing the names of different owners and describing boundaries and extent of the land are public records and the information such as names of persons and the extent of land owned or possessed by the public authority is neither private information nor 'third party' information. The Commission rejects the contention of the PIO on this point as that reflected the unreasonable, exploitative and secretive attitude of some public servants with a strong appeal for change of this archaic slaveofBritishclosedmindset into open and transparent duty as prescribed by law. Exercvising its powers under Article 19(8)(a) of the RTI Act, the Commission require the public authority in this case, to inform the Commission about steps initiated to introduce complete transparency in land records before 31st December 2014.
18. The Commission directs to provide access to the appellant to the land records as sought by appellent before 31st December 2014 and advises the appellant to take copies of CIC/SA/A/2014/000453 Page 10 only those relevant documents without imposing a heavy burden on himself and the Public Authority by demanding copies of the entire record. The Commission also directs the Public Authority to explore displaying the land records on the prominent walls of villages for the convenience of the people including citizen like appellant.
19. With the above observations, the appeal is disposed of.
(M. Sridhar Acharyulu) Information Commissioner Authenticated true copy (Babu Lal) Deputy Registrar Address of the parties:
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