The court can intervene to correct surnames in revenue records to prevent frustration of legal processes, even if no procedural error is found.

ORDER :

(NIKHIL S. KARIEL, J.)

1. Heard learned advocate Mr. Dipan Desai for the petitioners and learned AGP Mr. J.K. Shah for the respondent No.1 – State.

2. A very peculiar case is come for consideration of this Court inasmuch as the petitioners, whose names are Jitendra Labhshankar “Mehta”, Harshaben D/o. Labhshankar “Mehta” and Urmilaben D/o. Labhshankar “Mehta” have approached this Court inter alia requesting that the Revenue Authorities may be directed to mutate their names as such in the revenue record, more particularly the names of the petitioners appearing as Jitendrakumar Labhshankar Teraiya, Harshaben Labhshakar Teraiya and Urmilaben Labhshankar Teraiya in the revenue record. Unfortunately, for the petitioners, since it would been have very simple, if the surname Teraiya had appeared in the revenue record on account of some mistake, which could have been appropriately corrected. It would appear in this regard that the surname Teraiya, in the revenue record was the surname, which was being carried by the community to which the petitioners belong, generation back. Again the issue becomes complicated since the surname Teraiya came to be incorporated in the revenue records, since the land in question was originally of the ownership of the grandfather of the petitioners and whereas the same has been devolved upon the father and consequently the petitioners. It would appear that while the community carried the surname Teraiya generations back, according to learned advocate Mr. Desai, at least from the time of the grandfather of the petitioners, the family of the petitioners carried surname “Mehta”.

3. It would also be relevant to observe here that while the petitioners have challenged the order of the Collector, Amreli, whereby the request has been rejected, it does not appear that any of the revenue authorities contest the fact of the petitioners being the same persons, whose names appear in the revenue record nor do the revenue authorities contest the fact that the petitioners in fact are the owners of the land in question. It would thus appear that the request made by the petitioners for correction of the name, had been rejected initially by the Mamlatdar, on the ground that there does not appear to be any mistake committed by the revenue authorities and to this Court, as observed hereinabove, it appears very clearly that the surname Teraiya appears in the revenue records on account of same being incorporated at the hands of some family members of the petitioners and whereas it is not the case of the petitioners also that there has been error committed by the revenue authorities while mutating the surname Teraiya. The order of the Mamlatdar has been confirmed by the Collector, more particularly the Collector also noting that there was no error at the end of revenue authorities, which would require any intervention by the Collector as the case may be.

4. While learned advocate Mr. Desai has made various submissions, trying to emphasize that the petitioners in fact were holding the surname of “Mehta” since their birth and the things get all the more complicated when one appreciates that the petitioner himself was working in the revenue department. Therefore, even the revenue authorities would not have any kind of doubt about the surname which is carried by the petitioners. Be that as it may, except for the fact that the correction is not one which would be required to be undone since it was at the end of the revenue authorities being a primary contention of the learned AGP, it would appear that beyond the same, there is nothing else reflected in the order passed by the Mamlatdar as confirmed by the Deputy Collector and the Collector and there is no other stand by the State Government in this regard.

5. To this Court, it would appear that while there may not be any procedure whereby a surname could be corrected, more particularly when the applicants being able to show that the corrections is sought for on account of error by t