GIAN DEVI Vs. GURDAS RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RESPONDENT Gurdas Ram applied for correction of girdawari of khasra No. 119//20(7-7) and No. 118//16 Min (3-7) from Kharif 1999 onward. He had purchased this land and mutation was sanctioned in his favour. This application was opposed by the present petitioners on the ground that a stay order had been granted in their favour by civil court in a declaratory suit filed by them. The appellant i.e. the present respondent argued that the stay in the declaratory suit did not specifically forbid correction of girdawari.

(2.) THE disputed land was visited by the Assistant Collector Grade-II, Bagha Purana on 9.6.2000 in the presence of respectables of the village. He found that the present respondent was in possession of the land as purchaser from the (sic). Girdwari was accordingly corrected in his favour vide order dated 9.8.2000. The District Collector Moga, vide order dated 5.4.2002 dismissed the petitioners' appeal. It was brought to the Collector's notice that the declaratory suit had been dismissed by the civil Court on 8.8.2000 which rendered the stay order infructuous. The Division Commissioner, Ferozepur, vide order dated 4.2.2003 dismissed the revision preferred by the present petitioners. He held that the corrected girdawari had already been incorporated in the jamabandi.

(3.) I should clarify here that there is a difference between mutation and girdawari. While mutation of land purchased from joint khata is not sanctioned in terms of specific khasra numbers, the girdawari which is a record of cultivation has to be recorded with respect of specific field numbers possession of which is received by the transferee/vendee. Co-sharers of joint khata often make internal arrangements for cultivation in a manner so that each co-sharer occupies and cultivates a specific portion and when he transfers each specific portion, he is able to transfer its cultivating possession to the transferee/vendee.