Title declaration

Querist : Anonymous (Querist) 17 June 2020 This query is : Resolved
Respected experts,
I am a 2nd-year law student lacking with much legal knowledge.
I stay in a village, one of my neighbors is using land for more than 30 years for farming without any interruption, no one knows who is the owner of the land, now the question is how can he get a better title or ownership of the land?

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Guest (Expert) 17 June 2020
First Confirm the Real Status of the Land in Government Records.

Rajendra K Goyal (Expert) 17 June 2020
Contact the local patwari, revenue department official and take the copy of revenue record of the land. Name of original owner would be revealed.

kavksatyanarayana (Expert) 17 June 2020
Obtain the information from the Taluk Office of your Taluk and after obtaining the S.No. and the name of the owner of the land, get EC for 35 years to 40 years from the Sub-registrar concerned.

Raj Kumar Makkad (Expert) 17 June 2020
I do agree with the advice of kavyasatyanarayana. It is very easy to get the ownership status of the said land from the revenue record and only then the further issue shall arise.

P. Venu (Expert) 17 June 2020
Yes, first of all ascertain the particulars of the land from the Revenue authorities. Has the land been assessed for land revenue?

K Rajasekharan (Expert) 17 June 2020
What I make out from your question is that you want to know whether and how your neighbour, who is in uninterrupted possession of a tract of land of unknown ownership for more than 30 years, can get a better title or ownership of that piece of land than its mere posession.

It seems to me that your neighbour has no way to get a better title or ownership of the land in question. He seems to be an intruder and has no legal right to get the ownership of the land.

The concept of adverse possession, wherein a true owner loses his right to evict a person from his land if the land is in uninterrupted hostile possession of someone else for more than 12 years, does not seem to apply here in this case.

Dr J C Vashista (Expert) 18 June 2020
I agree with experts Mr. Rajendra K Goyal and Mr. P Venu.
Obtain copy of revenue records (fard girdawari, khata khatoni, aksajra etc.) from your village patwari and consult a local lawyer with relevant records, otherwise the experts advise is based on permutation and combination, surmises and conjuctures, whish is not sure to be correct.

Sudhir Kumar, Advocate (Expert) 18 June 2020
In some states uninterrupted possession of 20(+) years gives a title by prescription.

Please check with local lawyer after obtaining mutation status from patwari.

Hemant Agarwal (Expert) 18 June 2020
1. IF you wish to usurp the unclaimed land of some unknown owner, THEN file "Declaration Suit" in local Civil Court, and stake claim to the land and make the neighbor and the revenue dept., as parties. This should settle the matter either in your favor or in favor of neighbor. IF the land is of a reserved /forest /public land category, THEN Revenue dept., will confiscate the land.

2. ABOVE will give you a very good strategic experience, more so since you are a law student. IF you are lucky you will have settled scores with neighbor and the court is not going to impose any costs on you.

Keep Smiling .... Hemant Agarwal
VISIT: www.chshelpforum.com

Rajendra K Goyal (Expert) 18 June 2020
Even before filing a case, copy of revenue record has to be taken, probably the record would reveal full position, actual ownership.

Asgher Mahdi (Expert) 18 June 2020
I think with this query as a law student you would like to know how to claim adverse possession what I believe. To answer your query I support the expert herein advice you to check at first the municipal records at whom name the property remained? Whether a parts land or might be remained in unnamed declared or a vacant land or waste land declared by authorities. If it remained in government records you can claim through Parts but if remained in name of someone name unattended for long time, you can claims through adverse possession. Make it note that claiming adverse possession is not easy task but need an help from expert lawyer.

Rajendra K Goyal (Expert) 18 June 2020
As a law student if he is interested to help someone having illegal possession of the land without any title, by adverse possession, probably it would not be a good starting of his professional life.

P. Venu (Expert) 18 June 2020
The following findings of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of RAVINDER KAUR GREWAL would help us to understand that there is nothing illegal in the concept of adverse possession:

"................The adverse possession remained as a part of the law and continue to exist. The concept of adverse possession has a root in the aspect that it awards ownership of land to the person who makes the best or highest use of the land. The land, which is being used is more valuable than idle land, is the concept of utilitarianism. The concept thus, allows the society as a whole to benefit from the land being held adversely but allows a sufficient period for the “true owner” to recover the land. The adverse possession statutes permit rapid development of “wild” lands with the weak or indeterminate title. It helps in the Doctrine of Administration also as it can be an effective and efficient way to remove or cure clouds of title which with memories grow dim and evidence becomes unclear. The possessor who maintains and improves the land has a more valid claim to the land than the owner who never visits or cares for the land and uses it, is of no utility. If a former owner neglects and allows the gradual dissociation between himself and what he is claiming and he knows that someone else is caring by doing acts, the attachment which one develops by caring cannot be easily parted with. The bundle of ingredients constitutes adverse possession."

The public policy as to adverse possession is certainly based land being used for its best productive purpose, thus benefiting the Society as a whole. Thus adverse possession is not illegal or perverse, but a wholesome ingredient of public policy.

The above decision could accessed at https://indiankanoon.org/doc/199096823/

Querist : Anonymous (Querist) 18 June 2020
thanks a lot, respected experts your expertise helped me understand well and hoping to learn much in the future, once again thank you to all the experts.

Rajendra K Goyal (Expert) 19 June 2020
You are welcome, may revert in case of any further question on the query.

Raj Kumar Makkad (Expert) 19 June 2020
No suit can be filed seeking ownership by way of adverse possession and suit filed against unconcerned neighbour shall also not pave the way to the author, he intends. Adverse possession should be hostile against the true owner. There are conditions attached for the adverse possession also which are required to be ascertained once the revenue record is obtained by the author.

P. Venu (Expert) 20 June 2020
The above posting is misconceived. The author's posting is unequivocal in that he is not seeking to pursue adverse claim, for his own sake, against the neighbour. On the contrary, he has only sought suggestion as to how he can legally assist his neighbour in perfecting his title to property under latter's personal cultivation, allegedly, for more than thirty years.

Moreover, the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Ravinder Kaur Grewal has finally settled that an action for declaration of title is maintainable, i.e. a suit could, certainly, be filed seeking ownership by way of adverse possession.