Karnataka HC Sets Aside Grant-Cancellation Letter Over Chikkamagaluru Lands, Restores Mutation Entries And Orders Spot Survey Before Fresh Decision

The petitioners challenged a letter dated 26 July 2017 from the Additional Deputy Commissioner to the Tahsildar, which treated their lands in Sy. No. 252 as uncultivable and initiated action to cancel grants made to the original grantees.

The petitioners relied on registered sale deeds and, in W.P. No. 53693/2018, a registered Will transferring the land to the petitioner

They also initially challenged related Karnataka Lokayukta proceedings, but did not press that relief; the Court noted that those proceedings had been closed

The petitioners relied on official correspondence stating that the tank was in Sy. No. 199 of Magadi Village and that other lands referred to were in Sy. Nos. 344 of Nagarahalli Village and 72 of Magadi Village

The Court did not identify or apply a specific statutory provision, precedent, or substantive doctrine in its reasoning.

It proceeded under its writ jurisdiction under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution, considered the registered conveyances and official correspondence, and directed the Tahsildar to determine the matter through a spot inspection and survey with the jurisdictional Assistant Director of Land Records, followed by a decision in accordance with law

The registered sale deeds and the Will supported the petitioners’ claim that the lands in dispute were in Sy. No. 252

The official letters, however, placed the tank and other lands identified by the authorities in different survey numbers and villages

In those circumstances, the Court held that the authorities’ correspondence could not justify the impugned action against the petitioners’ lands

Because the dispute required factual verification, it directed a joint spot inspection and survey rather than finally determining the land’s status

It directed the Tahsildar, together with the jurisdictional ADLR and in the petitioners’ presence, to inspect and survey the lands on 7 December 2026 at 11:00 a.m. and thereafter decide the matter in accordance with law

Until that exercise was completed, the authorities were directed not to interfere with the lands; the Tahsildar was also directed to restore the petitioners’ mutation entries based on the registered sale deeds within two months

The challenge to the Lokayukta proceedings was not pressed, and the Court recorded that those proceedings had been closed.