Mutation No. 220 attested for land measuring 36 kanals 16 marlas comprised in Khasra Nos. 276/17, 279/19 and 281/20 situated at village Muthi Jagir Tehsil and District Kathua, in favour of the petitioners, was set aside by the Jammu and Kashmir Special Tribunal vide order dated 24.8.2007 made on respondent-Harbhajan Singh s Revision directed against the order of Additional Deputy Commissioner, Kathua with powers of Commissioner, Agrarian Reforms (Appeals), whereby his Appeal against Mutation was dismissed. The petitioners Mutation was set aside by the Tribunal holding that having been attested in absence of respondent, who was then serving in Indian Army, itcould not be sustained being violative of the principles of Natural Justice.

Questioning the judgment of the Special Tribunal, the petitioners learned counsel submitted that Appeal preferred by the respondent against the Mutation after a period of more than twenty years was rightly dismissed by the learned Additional Deputy Commissioner and the Tribunal had, therefore, no jurisdiction to interfere with the order of the Commissioner.

The respondent, on the other hand, would submit that there being no dispute between the parties on the issue that the land in question was allotted to the respondent, a displaced person of 1947 from Pak Occupied Kashmir, under Cabinet Decision No. 578-C of 1954 and conferred with ownership rights thereon vide Mutation No. 198 under Government Order No. 254-C of 1965, the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976 would have no application to the land in question and the Mutation attested in favour of the petitioners being void abinitio, no interference with the Tribunal s order was warranted.

I have considered the submissions of learned counsel for the parties and gone through the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976.

The land in question being one allotted to the respondent, a displaced person of 1947 from Pak Occupied Kashmir, under Cabinet Order No. 578-C of 1954 and conferred with ownership rights thereon under Government Order No. 254-C of 1965, the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976, would not be applicable to the land in question as specifically indicated so in Schedule-II appended to the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act.

This apart, in terms of the provisions of Section 4-A of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, any Mutation attested under Sections 4, 8 or 12 of the Act for any land mentioned under Section 3 or Sub-section (2) of Section 4 would be void abinitio. The land in question falls in the category of land as defined in Section 4(2)(c) of the Act and in this view of the matter, the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act would have no application to the land in question. The Mutation attested under the provisions of the Agrarian Reforms Act for the land in question cannot, therefore, be sustained, being without jurisdiction.

The view taken by the Tribunal in annulling the Mutation attested in favour of the petitioners, cannot, therefore, be faulted.

There is thus no merit in the Writ Petition, which is, accordingly, dismissed.

Click Here to Read the rest of this document