Revenue authorities may reconsider mutation only after the civil court determines the parties’ rights.

The petitioners challenged the Deputy Commissioner’s order dated 2 August 2024 in Revision Petition No. 275/2023 concerning a change of mutation.

They claimed rights over the land based on a registered sale deed dated 5 October 1917.

The Court noted that the petitioners had filed O.S. No. 779/2024 before the competent civil court to establish their rights.

Whether the High Court should interfere with the Deputy Commissioner’s order concerning the mutation while the petitioners’ rights in the land remained to be determined in a civil suit.

Whether the petitioners could pursue their claim to the land before the Revenue Authorities after the civil court determined the parties’ rights.

The petition was brought under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India.

The Court applied the principle that a claim of right or title to land must be established in the manner known to law; where that claim is pending before a competent civil court, the parties’ rights are to be determined there before the petitioners seek further relief from the Revenue Authorities.

The petitioners’ claim rested on the 1917 sale deed, but the Court considered that their rights over the land had not yet been established and were the subject of a pending civil suit.

In those circumstances, it declined to interfere with the revenue order and left the determination of the parties’ rights to the civil court.

It also preserved the petitioners’ ability to approach the Revenue Authorities after the suit concluded.

It left the petitioners at liberty to approach the Revenue Authorities after conclusion of O.S. No. 779/2024, in which the parties’ rights would be determined.