Mutation Of Land In Revenue Records Do Not Create Title Over Land, SC Reiterates [Read Judgment]

Mutation of a land in the revenue records does not create or extinguish the title over land not does it have any presumptive value on the title and it only enables the person in whose favour mutation if ordered to pay the land revenue in question, the Supreme Court has reiterated.

A bench of Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre and Justice R Subhash Reddy said so while deciding an appeal against a Bombay High Court order on a dispute arising out of entries made in the revenue records in relation to the disputed land.

"The law on the question of mutation in the revenue records pertaining to any land and what is its legal value while deciding the rights of the parties are fairly well settled by a series of decisions of this court.

"This Court has consistently held that mutation of a land in the revenue records does not create or extinguish the title over such land nor it has any presumptive value on the title. It only enables the person in whose favour mutation is ordered to pay the land revenue in question," said the bench.

The bench said so while referring to a series of its decisions in Sawarni (Smt.) vs Inder Kaur, Balwant Singh & Anr vs Daulat Singh and Narasamma & Ors vs State of Karnataka & Ors.

The bench did not venture into the question of correctness of entries in the records as it said, " it is not in dispute that the civil suits in relation to the land in question are pending in the courts between the parties. Therefore, it would not be proper to embark upon any factual inquiries into the question as to whether the entries were properly made or not and at whose instance they were made etc in this appeal. It is more so when they neither decide the title or extinguish the title of the parties in relation to the land.

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