Only civil court can decide ownership: HC

Bengaluru: The civil court is the only authority that can declare the rights of parties over a disputed piece of land, not the revenue authorities, the Dharwad bench of Karnataka high court observed in a recent judgment.“It is a settled principle of law and requires no emphasis that orders passed by the taluk executive magistrate (tahsildar) would be subservient to the order that would be passed by the civil court,” said Justice V Shrishananda in his order.Petitioners Nagaraj and Shivaprasad from Yaradona village in Karatagi taluk of Koppal district had a dispute with one Shivamma over a piece of land measuring 6 acres and 2 guntas.Shivamma had complained that the two petitioners had forged her signature and obtained a resurvey sketch of the land in question and tried to dispossess her of her land.Officials conducted an investigation, took note of the dispute over the land, and registered one more report, namely a preventive action report (PAR), on August 15, 2022 under section 107 of CrPC. They referred the same to the tahsildar for taking action against Nagaraj and Shivaprasad.The tahsildar then conducted proceedings and, on December 28, 2022, passed an order stating that Shivamma was in possession of the disputed land and the same should not be disturbed by Nagaraj and Shivaprasad. In addition, the police sub-inspector of Karatagi was directed to accord police help. Aggrieved, Nagaraj and Shivaprasad approached the high court. They claimed that Shivamma had encroached upon their land after she lost a portion of her property to land acquisition by the railways, and the same was not considered by the tahsildar.After perusing the materials on record, Justice Shrishananda pointed out that if at all the petitioners are aggrieved with regard to the action against them, they may always approach the civil court to establish their right over the disputed property. Considering the fact that there is already a civil suit pending over the issue, the judge said the order passed by the tahsildar would be subservient to that which will be passed by the civil court.
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