Revenue entries are not documents of title, and a declaratory decree cannot be granted solely on revenue records.

Dev Darshan Sud, J.

1. This is the plaintiff's appeal against the judgment and decree of the learned Additional District Judge, Kullu reversing the judgment and decree passed by the learned trial Court in a suit instituted by plaintiff Sarfa Ram granting him relief in the nature of a declaratory decree declaring him to be the owner of the suit land and further restraining the defendants from interfering in his possession permanently.

2. The plaintiff had approached the Court on the allegations that he had four brothers. Namely; Durga, Saily, Bhikha, defendants No. 1 to 3 and Paras Ram, since deceased, represented by defendants No. 4 to 8. According to the allegations made by him all of them jointly owned and possessed the suit land which was purchased by him and his brothers vide registered sale deed dated 18.9.1965 from Pune Ram, Atma Ram, Kirpa Ram Krishan, Jai Chand for a consideration of 15,000/ - rupees and mutation No. 1164 was attested in their favour. This mutation was lateron reviewed behind his back on 5.2.1990 and his name was deleted from the revenue records. The learned trial Court settled 11 issues holding two crucial issues, to the effect i.e. as to whether the plaintiff was the owner in possession of the suit land and whether the review proceedings were illegal, in favour of the plaintiff. The Court held that the mutation was rightly attested and that the sale deed Ex.DW-2/A which formed the basis of the claim of the plaintiff, had been tampered with. The learned trial Court while considering the evidence of DW-2 has made detailed observations as to why the sale deed Ex.DW-2/ A could not be relied upon. In appeal, the learned appellate Court has reversed these findings holding the sale deed Ex.DW-2/A to be genuine and valid as there is no proof on the record of any changes, interpolation etc. being made.

3. This is a classical case where interminable disputes have arisen because of revenue entries being recorded at the whims of the revenue officer as held by the Supreme Court in Baleshwar Tewari (Dead) by LRs. and Ors. v. Sheo Jatan Tiwary and Ors. [1997] 3 SCR 140 :

15. ...Entries in Revenue records is the paradise of the patwari and the tiller of the soil is rarely concerned with the same. So long as his possession and enjoyment is not interdicted by due process and course of law, he is least concerned with entries.

Before proceeding to discuss the relative merits of the questions raised by the plaintiff-appellant, I must observe that the revenue Authorities are riding rough shod on the rights of the parties. But having said this, there is a preliminary hurdle in the way of the plaintiff-appellant for a declaration that he is the owner of the suit property. The proposition that revenue entries are not documents of title is by now well established. (See: Corporation of the City of Bangalore v. M. Papaiah and Anr. AIR 1989 SC 1809 , Guru Amarjit Singh v. Rattan Chand and Ors. AIR 1994 SC 227 , Guru Amarjit Singh v. Rattan Chand and Ors. AIR 1994 SC 227 , Jattu Ram v. Hakam Singh and Ors. AIR 1994 SC 1653 , Sawarni (Smt.) v. Inder Kaur (Smt.) and Ors. AIR 1996 SC 2823 , State of H.P. v. Keshav Ram and Ors. AIR 1997 SC 2181 , State of Himachal Pradesh v. Keshav Ram and Ors. AIR 1997 SC 2181 , M.T.W.). In Tenzing Namgyal and Ors. v. Motilal Lokhotia and Ors. [2003] 1 SCR 877 , it was held:

33. ...Ordinarily record-of-rights cannot be treated to have any evidentiary value on the question of title inasmuch as such records are prepared mainly based on possession.

35. In Sita Ram Bhau Patil this Court held : (SCC p. 54, para 21).

21. With regard to the record-of-rights Counsel for the appellant said that presumption arises with regard to its correctness. There is no abstract principle that whatever Will appear in the record-of-rights will be presumed to be correct when it is shown by evidence that the entries are not correct. Apart from the intrinsic evidence in the record-of-rights that they refer to facts which are