BHOPAL | JABALPUR: The MP high court has ruled that the revenue courts can’t hear a case further once a case is filed by any of the litigants in a civil court regarding a land dispute. With this, Justice GS Ahluwalia stayed the operation of an order of the Jabalpur divisional commissioner’s court in a civil dispute.
The petitioner in the case, Abhishek Nigam from Bhopal, said he and Amresh Shrivastava jointly purchased land in Jabalpur district. In 2011, they moved an application before the tehsildar for the division of property.
The concerned tehsildar allowed the application and divided the title of the land between the two. Following this, the land was divided between them and registered in their respective names in the revenue records.
In 2018, Shrivastava filed an appeal in the court of the SDM against the order of the tehsildar. At the same time, he filed a suit in a civil court, and the SDM dropped proceedings in the appeal filed before him in the case after he filed the civil suit.
Later, he filed an application before the Jabalpur commissioner, who set aside the order of the tehsildar, and the revenue record was accordingly changed the same day.
The petitioner contended that since the SDM didn’t pass an order in the case on merits and demerits, the commissioner had no jurisdiction to hear the appeal. Once a civil suit is filed in a dispute, a revenue court can’t hear the case any further.
The high court, while holding that the divisional commissioner had no jurisdiction to hear the case once it is being heard in the civil court, stayed the operation of his order.
The court also stayed any move to sell the property while seeking a reply from respondents in the case by the next hearing on November 18.
