WHEN ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER COMES ACROSS ILLEGAL TRANSACTIONS THROUGH ANY NEWS PAPER REPORTS OPTIONS LEFT

1. The Assistant Commissioner exercises his powers under the chapter III of The Karnataka Land Revenue Act 1964 regarding any appeals, revision and review. As per Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka’s Decision in R.C.Puttaiah v/s The Deputy Commissioner & others Reported in 1989(2) Kar LJ page 9 “ Assistant Commissioner has no power to review his own order” The same view was expressed by Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka’s Decision in the case of M.Narayanappa v/s Hemavathi reported in ILR 1987 KAR page 715.

2. The powers under Section 83 of The Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961 does not confer powers on Assistant Commissioner to withdraw his earlier order.

3. Under Section 83 of The Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961 if any illegal transaction comes to the notice of Assistant Commissioner following procedure has to be adopted.
• He has to make summary enquiry
• He has to insist upon land owner to file Form 12 and cross verify the declaration made through concerned Tahsildar.
• Assistant Commissioner has to seek preliminary report from Tahsildar, copy of such report has to be served to land owner to file his objections over the report and then only decision of action under section 83 can be made.
• Under Section 66(2) of The Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961 Tahsildar is only having powers to issue notice to furnish declaration to any person having excess land beyond ceiling limit.
• Assistant Commissioner can direct concerned Tahsildar to issue notice to concerned person and seek declaration from the person about his land holdings if he becomes aware of illegal transaction.

4. As decided by Karnataka High Court in the case of D.S.Shamala v/s Assistant Commissioner Karnataka reported in 1978(1) Kar.LJ page 472 “The Assistant Commissioner has no jurisdiction to invalidate sale transactions under section 83 before any action is taken by the Tahsildar under section 66-A of the The Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961”

5. The only legal options left out for an Assistant Commissioner who comes to know about his illegality in orders previously made are:
• He has to file criminal case against persons who filed false affidavits before his court.
• He has to report matter to the Deputy Commissioner, if he has any legally valid defense about his conduct in such proceedings as alleged in news papers reports.
• He should have records before him to send any report or to take any action on the false declarations.
• If the records were seized by the Deputy Commissioner, AC cannot proceed further to pass any orders without perusing records.
• At most he has to summon all records related to concerned cases from lower authorities who changed khatha based on his orders and collect fresh evidence if any to make report to the immediate superior. To do so he has to follow procedure asking Tahsildar to submit his report after issuing notice Under Section 66(2) of The Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961


6. Under Section 83 of The Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961 AC can only initiate inquiry regarding illegal transaction. To conclude a transaction to be illegal following records need to be summoned:
• J slip of illegal transactions.
• List of illegal land extent and along with RTC and Mutations.
• Report of Tahsildar
• Declaration of Land Holder under Form-12

7. News paper Report is not having any evidenciary value to take any final action based on it, only thing is to initiate action under Section 66(2) of The Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961, based on such reports and summoned documents notice has to be given to land holder and furnish report copy and seek his explanation to make decision under Section 83 of The Karnataka Land Reforms Act 1961