Bihar Consolidation of Upholdings and Prevention of Fragmentation Act, 1956 – s. 37 – Bar of jurisdiction of Civil Court – Order of the Consolidation Authority confirming the title of the appellant over the suit land, liable to be reversed or ignored by the Civil Court – On facts, recognition of appellant’s rights over the suit land by the consolidation authorities, however, subsequently, the State started interfering with the possession of the appellant – Suit filed by the appellant for declaring his title over the suit land and to confirm his possession over it – Decreed in his favour by the trial court, however, the appellate courts discarded the order of the Consolidation Officer and dismissed the suit – Correctness: Held: Revenue entries are not documents of title and do not ordinarily confer or extinguish title in the land but, nonetheless, where the revenue authorities or the consolidation authorities are competent to determine the rights of the parties by exercising powers akin to the Civil Courts, any order or entry made by such authorities which attains finality has to be respected and given effect to – Consolidation Officer referring to the patta by which the said land was settled in favour of the appellant’s father and the adoption deed directed the name of the appellant to be recorded in the record of rights – Rights of the parties over the suit land stood crystalised with the passing of the order by the Consolidation Officer which became final and conclusive – State never challenged the same – When the rights of the appellant have been determined and recognised by the consolidation authorities, the order of the Consolidation Officer to that effect in favour of the appellant could not have been ignored by the Civil Court – Jurisdiction of the Civil Court in respect of the rights determined by the Consolidation Officer stands impliedly excluded by the very scheme of the Consolidation Act – Appellate courts below erred in holding otherwise discarding the order of the Consolidation Officer which was sacrosanct as to the rights in respect to the suit land – Civil suit for declaration of rights in respect of land where the Consolidation Court has already passed an order recognizing the rights of one of the parties is not barred by s. 37, as it does not propose to challenge any order passed by the Consolidation Court under the Act and that the Civil Court is not competent to either ignore or reverse the order passed by the Consolidation Officer once it has attained finality – Thus, the impugned judgment and orders of the appellate courts set aside and that of the trial court is restored. [Paras 17-26]
Bihar Consolidation of Upholdings and Prevention of Fragmentation Act, 1956 – Scheme of the Consolidation Act – Explained. [Paras 13, 14, 16]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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