Rajasthan Land Revenue Rules 1963 | District Collector's Order Is Appealable Before Revenue Appellate Authority: High Court

The Rajasthan High Court has iterated that no party can be left remediless merely because there is no provision for appeal provided in a statute.

The Court observed thus in the context of Rajasthan Land Revenue (Permanent Allotment of Evacuee Agriculture Lands) Rules, 1963, wherein it noted that regardless of the presence or absence of such lacunae in the Act, the petitioner can prefer an appeal before the Revenue Appellate Authority against the District Collector's Order, the court underscored.

The single judge bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand also clarified that since the Revenue Appellate Authority has already transferred the matter to the Divisional Commissioner by a Government Notification in 2019, the Divisional Commissioner himself should hear the appeal on merits and not merely dismiss the petition as non-maintainable.

“Merely because the Rules of 1963 did not provide any remedy to the aggrieved person, he cannot be left remediless. If any person is feeling himself aggrieved by any adverse order passed against him, then certainly he has every right to challenge the same before the appropriate forum of law. When a legal injury is sustained by any person, certainly he/she has remedy to cure that injury…”, the court observed in the order.

While directing the Divisional Commissioner to re-register and restore the appeals, the court has mandated that the appeals must be decided expeditiously, preferably within three months from the date of appearance of parties, considering the long pendency of the litigation about the disputed land allotment.

Both parties have been directed to appear before the Divisional Magistrate on 04.01.2023.

Referring to Chhida v. Board of Revenue (1986), the court reinforced the settled proposition that an order passed by the District Collector under the Rules of 1963 is appealable before the Revenue Appellate Tribunal as per the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1955. In Chhida, the Madhya Pradesh High Court held that if the land in dispute is of the nature as dealt with in the rules and has to be allotted under the aforesaid rules, the forum of appeals shall be as provided under the provisions of the Parent Act.

In this case, allotment of the same land had been done in favour of both the petitioner as well as the respondents in various years by the authorities concerned. Lately, when the parties again claimed the same property, the High Court, in 2009, directed the District Collector to conduct an enquiry. After enquiry, the District Collector finally allotted the property in favour of the respondents by restoration of patta issued in favour of the respondents on 15.05.1979. The petitioner preferred an appeal against the judgment dated 16.10.2017 passed by the Collector before the Divisional Commissioner, Bharatpur which was dismissed as non-maintainable by order dated 31.01.2023.

While deciding the case, the court added that when the coordinate bench of the court allowed the special appeals in 2009, liberty was granted to the aggrieved party to seek the remedy before the appropriate forum, in accordance with law.

“…It is well settled proposition of law that if there is no specific procedure prescribed under the Act or Rules or Rules of Business, in that case merely because the procedure does not find place in the statute on Rules of business, a party cannot be rendered remediless. What is paramount is to ensure that, ends of justice is served, if an opportunity is provided to the aggrieved party to approach the higher authority for examining the correctness of the order passed against him”, the bench sitting at Jaipur further opined after referring to legal maxims such as 'where there is a right, there is a remedy'.

The court added that as per the legal term 'Lex Semper Dabit Remedium', it is a vain thing to imagine a right without a remedy, for want of right and for want of remedy are reciprocal.

Case Title: Anil Agarwal S/o Kailash Chand v. Suresh Chand & Ors. and Connected Matters

Case No: S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 6941/2023 & Other Matters

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Raj)

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