BEFORE __________
TEHSIL __________, DISTRICT __________, PUNJAB
BETWEEN
... PETITIONER
AND
RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:
- 1. CAPACITY OF THE PETITIONER, AND OTHER PROCEEDINGS
- 2. THE LAND
- 3. THE MUTATION COMPLAINED OF
- 5. GROUNDS
The Petitioner objects to the said mutation on the following grounds:
- 6. THE LEGAL POSITION RELIED UPON
(a) By section 44 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 an entry in the record-of-rights or in the annual record is presumed to be true until the contrary is proved or a new entry is lawfully substituted for it. The impugned mutation seeks to substitute a new entry, and the presumption attaching to the Petitioner's existing entry cannot be displaced without inquiry and without notice.
(b) A mutation is an entry made for the assessment and collection of land revenue. It does not create, transfer or extinguish title, and by section 45 of the said Act a person aggrieved by an entry may institute a suit for a declaratory decree. That remedy is expressly preserved and is neither waived nor abandoned nor affected by the presentation of this petition. Conversely, by section 158 of the said Act the jurisdiction of the civil court is excluded over the matters there enumerated, which include the making and the variation of an entry in the record-of-rights and in the annual record; so the entry is for this Court and the title is for the civil court, and this petition is confined to the entry.
(c) Sections 34 and 35 of the said Act put the duty of reporting an acquisition of a right, and of reporting any other interest, on the person acquiring it, and put the duty of attesting the resulting entry — upon inquiry, and in the presence of the persons interested — on the Revenue Officer. Section 36 requires a dispute as to any such entry to be determined by summary inquiry, and the entry then to be made having regard to actual possession.
(d) Section 37 of the said Act restricts the variation of an entry in the annual record otherwise than in accordance with that Act and the rules under it. An entry varied without the inquiry the Act requires is not a variation the Act permits.
(e) By paragraph 7.30 of the Punjab Land Records Manual a mutation must not be entered or sanctioned in order to correct an entry already incorporated in a jamabandi, except to correct a clerical error which a fard badar cannot reach, or in consequence of a patent fact; and by paragraph 7.29 a correction confined to the current consigned jamabandi lies to the Circle Revenue Officer, while one extending back into earlier jamabandis lies to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate.
(f) Where a mutation of ownership is founded upon an unregistered agreement to sell, upon an unregistered will set up after the death of the recorded owner, or upon the combination of a general power of attorney with an agreement to sell and a will, such documents do not convey title and cannot found a mutation of ownership: Suraj Lamp & Industries (P) Ltd. v. State of Haryana, (2012) 1 SCC 656.
(g) By section 38(2) of the said Act, read with paragraph 7.33 of the Punjab Land Records Manual, the mutation fee is recovered by the Revenue Officer at the time of attestation and can be levied only from the person in whose favour the mutation entry is made. The Petitioner, objecting to the entry, is not liable for it and has not paid it.
(h) By paragraph 7.56 of the Punjab Land Records Manual, mutations on which final orders are passed up to 15 June inclusive are incorporated in the new jamabandi. The Petitioner accordingly presses for an early hearing, so that a disputed entry is not hardened into the quinquennial record while this proceeding is pending.
- 8. PRAYER
It is therefore most respectfully prayed that this Court may be pleased to:
and to pass such further or other order as the nature and the circumstances of the case may require, in the interests of justice. The Petitioner shall ever pray.
- 9. PRESENTATION
SCHEDULE OF THE LAND
INDEX OF DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THIS PETITION
VERIFICATION
Signature or thumb impression of the Petitioner: ______________________________
AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF THE PETITION
(To be filed with the petition. Where it is sworn in Punjab, it is engrossed on non-judicial stamp paper of the denomination current under Article 4 of Schedule I-A of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 as in force in Punjab, bought from a licensed vendor at the Tehsil or generated as an e-stamp certificate in the deponent's own name. Where it is sworn outside India, it is made on plain paper before the officer named in the jurat below, and no Punjab stamp paper is used or required.)
- 5. That save as disclosed in the accompanying petition, I have not filed any other petition, objection, appeal, application, review, revision or suit on the same subject matter against the Respondent before any court, tribunal or authority.
DEPONENT
VERIFICATION OF THE AFFIDAVIT
DEPONENT
JURAT