A PIL has been filed before the Supreme Court of India seeking creation of a revenue judicial service, arguing that unqualified officials are deciding land disputes and requesting mandatory legal qualifications and training for officers adjudicating such matters.
A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court arguing that non-qualified legal personnel are resolving land disputes.
The petition seeks directions to create a revenue judicial service and to mandate minimum legal qualifications and a training curriculum for public servants who adjudicate such matters.
Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay’s plea states that roughly 66 percent of civil cases involve land disputes, and the principal shortcoming is that these disputes are being decided by officers without formal legal education or training, producing erroneous and inconsistent rulings.
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The top court is expected to take up the matter on April 2.
Drafted by advocate Ashwani Dubey, the petition notes that the Allahabad High Court previously addressed this issue, but its order has not been fully implemented.
The plea states,
“The present system causes widespread and continuing injury to citizens by subjecting the adjudication of land disputes to revenue officers without legal background, resulting in arbitrary, inconsistent and erroneous decisions.”
It further added,
“This leads to prolonged uncertainty over property rights, restricts the use and transfer of land, increases litigation and costs, and denies effective access to justice, thereby infringing the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution,”
It asks the Centre and state governments to prescribe, in consultation with the relevant high courts, minimum legal qualifications and a judicial training module for revenue officers deciding matters of title, succession, inheritance, possession and other property rights.
The petition also seeks declarations that:
- “Direct and declare that adjudication of title, succession, inheritance, possession and other property rights by public servants without formal legal education and judicial training is legally impermissible;”
- “Direct and declare that adjudication of title, succession, inheritance, possession and other property rights shall be supervised and monitored by the respective high court.”
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