Disputed Will-Based Land Claims Must Be Decided By Civil Court, Chhattisgarh HC Sets Aside Revenue Board Order

The subject land, comprising 11 khasra numbers and measuring 2.923 hectares, was recorded in the names of Beronika, widow of Choto, and respondents 6 and 7.

After Beronika’s death, the petitioner—son of late Gabrail—objected to mutation in favour of respondents 6 and 7, claiming a succession interest and disputing an alleged will/Iqrarnama said to have been executed by Beronika.

The Tahsildar rejected his objection, and the SDO dismissed his appeal.

The Commissioner set aside the SDO’s order; the Board of Revenue later set aside the Commissioner’s order and restored the subordinate revenue orders.

The petitioner challenged the Board’s decision.

Mutation entries are maintained for fiscal purposes and neither create nor extinguish title; disputed title, particularly a claim founded on a disputed will, must be established before a competent civil court.

The Court relied on Jitendra Singh v. State of Madhya Pradesh, 2021 SCC OnLine SC 802, which reiterates that a claimant relying on a will must have the claimed rights crystallised by the appropriate civil court before seeking consequential mutation.

The Court also stated that an unregistered agreement is not a valid document of relinquishment or conveyance and cannot, by itself, support mutation on the basis of title.

The petitioner disputed both the genuineness and legal effect of the alleged will/Iqrarnama, while the parties advanced competing claims to the land.

Those matters raised questions of title that the revenue authorities could not conclusively adjudicate in mutation proceedings.

The prior revenue entries in favour of respondents 6 and 7 did not establish title, notwithstanding that the petitioner had not challenged the earlier mutation, because such entries are fiscal in character.

Applying Jitendra Singh, the Court held that the Board had placed undue emphasis on the existing entries and that the parties’ substantive rights and the disputed document’s validity must be determined by a civil court.

The parties were left at liberty to seek adjudication of the alleged will/Iqrarnama and their respective rights before the competent civil court; consequential mutation proceedings may follow that adjudication in accordance with law.

The Court expressed no opinion on the document’s validity or the merits of the rival title claims.