BENGALURU: The high court has directed the principal secretary of the revenue department to instruct all officials concerned to mandatorily reflect “not to alienate” injunction orders granted by civil courts under the “other rights” column of land records to prevent unnecessary litigation and safeguard the integrity of judicial orders.
“Revenue authorities, as custodians of land records, are duty-bound to comply with orders of the civil court and ensure that rights declared by judicial forums are given full effect. Failure to do so would not only amount to wilful disobedience of court orders but also encourage illegal transactions in derogation of the rights of the litigating parties,” Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum observed in his order while allowing the petition filed by one Suvarna.
A resident of Hennagara village, Anekal taluk, Suvarna received an interim injunction in her favour by a civil court in a partition suit. However, when she approached the special tahsildar with a request to insert the order in the revenue record, an endorsement dated Dec 31, 2024, was issued rejecting her request on the ground that the department is not a party to the case. She challenged the same.
Justice Magadum opined that the case highlights a regrettable state of affairs where revenue authorities failed to uphold the legal sanctity of an injunction granted by a competent civil court.
“The purpose of ‘not to alienate’ injunction is to prevent the creation of third-party interests and to ensure that the rights of the parties to the suit are preserved pending adjudication. An injunction restraining alienation serves to maintain the status quo, preventing unscrupulous parties from frustrating the decree that may ultimately be passed in the suit,” the judge said.
“In adversarial litigation, a competent civil court grants injunctions to protect rights and prevent illegal transactions. The duty of revenue authorities is to ensure compliance with such judicial directions, (and) not to insist upon being arrayed as parties to the suit to fulfil their statutory obligations,” Justice Magadum said, adding that the refusal to incorporate injunctions merely because revenue officials were not party to the proceedings is an abdication of duty.
A direction has also been issued to the tahsildar to forthwith incorporate the injunction granted by the civil court in the “other rights” column of the revenue records pertaining to the property in question.
