The court emphasized the necessity for accurate land measurements and the precedence of khatauni over khasra in property disputes.

JUDGMENT :

(Saurabh Lavania, J.)

1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners, Shri Badrish Kumar Tripathi, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel for respondents no. 1 and 2, Brijendra Mani Pandey, learned counsel for caveators/respondents no. 4 and 5. Notice on behalf of respondent no.3/Village Panchayat Naugawan Teer has been accepted by Shri Mohan Singh, Advocate.

2. With the consent of learned counsel appearing for the contesting parties, the writ petition is being finally decided at admission stage.

3. The instant writ petition has been filed praying for following main reliefs:

(i) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Certiorari thereby quashing the impugned order dated 13.12.2023, passed by opposite party no.1 Commissioner Ayodhya Division, Ayodhya in Revision No.2132/2015, Computerized Case No. C-20150400002132, Vijay Bahadur and others V/s Khajan Singh and others, under section 219 of U.P. L.R. Act and the impugned order dated 28.09.2015 passed by opp. party no.2 i.e. Chief Revenue Officer, Sultanpur in Case No.448/1997-98, namely Ram Milan V/s Shiv Bahadur and others, under section 28 of U.P. L.R. Act, relating to Village-Naugawan Teer, Pargana-Meeranpur, Tehsil-Sadar, District-Sultanpur, as contained in Annexure No.1 and 2 to this writ petition.

(ii)Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus thereby commanding and directing the opposite parties to not interfere in the peaceful possession of the petitioners and also maintain status-quo, during the pendency of the writ petition, in the interest of justice."

4. Facts of the case are to the effect that an application for correction of map registered as Case No. 448/1997-98 (Ram Milan V/s Shiv Bahadur and others) was preferred under Section 28 of U.P. Land Revenue Act, 1901 (in short "Act of 1901") by one Ram Milan, predecessor in interest of the respondents no. 4 and 5 namely Khajan Singh and Dinesh Singh, respectively.

5. For disposal of aforesaid application, the concerned authority called for a report from revenue official. A report dated 23.10.2004 (Annexure No. 5 to the petition) was filed by the revenue official/tracer regarding Gata No(s). 958, 1230, 1229 and 957.

6. In the report dated 23.10.2004, the revenue official/tracer indicated the area of gatas. This report dated 23.10.2004 indicates the area of Gata No(s). 958, 1230, 1229 and 957 as 0.2825 hectare, 0.6085 hectare, 0.9300 hectare and 0.8938 hectare, respectively.

7. It is relevant to clarify here that Gata No. 958 belongs to respondents no. 4 and 5, and Gata No. 957 belongs to the petitioners herein.

8. The report dated 23.10.2004 was rejected and thereafter the tracer again submitted a report dated 15.05.2015 (Annexure No. 9 to the petition). In this report also, the area of Gata No. 958 has been indicated as 0.2825 hectare and area of Gata No. 957 has been indicated as 0.8938 hectare.

9. In respect to the report dated 15.05.2015, an objection dated 26.06.2015 (Annexure No. 10 to the petition) was filed by the petitioners.

10. Vide impugned order dated 28.09.2015, the respondent no.2/Chief Revenue Officer, Sultanpur confirmed the report dated 15.05.2015.

11. Being aggrieved by impugned order dated 28.092015, the petitioners preferred the Revision No. 2132/2015, Computerized Case No. C-20150400002132 (Vijay Bahadur and others Vs Khajan Singh and others) under Section 219 of Act of 1901. The revisional authority i.e. respondent no. 1/Commissioner, Ayodhya Division, Ayodhya dismissed the revision vide impugned order dated 13.12.2023.

12. Assailing the orders, it is submitted by learned counsel for the petitioners that as per the settled view, in case there is a mismatch between khatauni and khasra, khatauni shall prevail and in case there is mismatch between the khasra and the village map, khasra shall prevail.

13. It is also submitted that in the instant case, the area of Gata no. 957, which belongs to the petitioners, is indicated as 0.9940 hectare in the khatauni and area o