HC declares 2k acres of land in 3 Mysuru villages as pvt property

The Karnataka High Court has ruled that around 2,000 acres of land in three villages in Mysuru are private properties.

The High Court set aside the orders of the then Mysuru deputy commissioner that declared the land in three villages -- Kurubarahalli, Alanahalli and Chowdanahalli - as ‘B’ kharab government land.

The court held that the power to adjudicate the title over a property is the sole domain of courts. The bench stated that though the Karnataka Land Revenue Act traces its source of power to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, it does not confer powers relating to adjudication of the title disputes.

After a detailed hearing on the petitions filed by various land owners, Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav passed the order directing the authorities to delete the entry of 'B' kharab wherever found in the revenue records of the respective land owners.

Background: Three deputy commissioners of Mysore from 2011 to 2015 had passed separate orders pertaining to the lands in Kurubarahalli, Alanahalli and Chowdanahalli villages in Mysuru.

The first order was passed in 2011 by the then DC Harsha Gupta declaring the lands as 'B' kharab. The next year his successor P S Vastrad reversed the order but classified the land as 'A' kharab. However, Vastrad later withdrew his own order. In 2015, the then DC C Shikha passed a fresh order declaring the entire extent of land as 'B' kharab.

The owners of the land, including Pramoda Devi Wodeyar, wife of Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, moved the High Court challenging the order of the deputy commissioner. All the petitioners traced their title to the Maharaja of Mysore through registered deeds of conveyance.

The petitioners relied upon the Instrument of Accession entered into between the Maharaja of Mysore and the Dominion of India. The subsequent agreement entered into between the Governor General of India and the Maharaja of Mysore in 1950 had the list of immovable properties held by the latter.

The petitioners contended that the lands classified as 'B' kharab government lands by the deputy commissioner in 2015 were the very lands held by the Maharaja of Mysore.