Orissa High Court voices concern over unlawful transfer of tribal land to private individuals, orders probe
Bhubaneswar, July 23 (UNI) Expressing deep concern over transfer of tribal land to private individuals by revenue officials contrary to the process of law, the Orissa High Court has
directed the Keonjhar Collector to conduct inquiry into ‘willful’ administrative lapse and take to task the erring revenue officials.
“The Collector, Keonjhar is directed to cause an inquiry into the manner in which permissions for the sale of coparcenary property were granted without scrutiny, and how mutation and other revenue entries were affected in favour of a private individual in the absence of due process and consultation with all interested parties, particularly members of the Scheduled Caste community.
Appropriate disciplinary proceedings, if warranted, shall be initiated against the erring revenue officials involved”, Dr. Justice S.K.Panigrahi ruled in a judgment.
The role of the revenue authorities in this chain of events is deeply concerning. Instead of exercising vigilance in safeguarding the rights of Scheduled Caste co-parceners, the authorities appear to have acted with undue haste and inadequate scrutiny.
Permissions for transfer were granted without probing into the financial capacity of the purchaser or the legal status of the land. Mutation entries were made without notifying or consulting other co-parceners who stood to be materially affected.
These administrative lapses, when viewed collectively, suggest more than mere negligence; they raise a reasonable apprehension of institutional complicity or, at the very least, willful blindness.
The failure of the revenue machinery to discharge its statutory obligations calls for urgent judicial scrutiny and accountability, Dr. Justice Panigrahi observed in the ruling.
The entire transaction, therefore, reeks of illegality, fraud, and abuse of process. It is not just a case of a buyer exploiting legal loopholes, but of institutional machinery actively failing those it is duty-bound to protect.
The High Court cannot turn a blind eye to what is effectively a disenfranchisement of Scheduled Caste co-parceners through bureaucratic complicity and legal subterfuge.
Accordingly, the petitioners, being Scheduled Caste women from a vulnerable socio-economic background, cannot be lawfully divested of their ancestral property through backdoor transactions carried out without their knowledge or consent.
If co-parceners belonging to Scheduled Castes are not restored to possession of their rightful share and if mechanisms are not enforced to prevent the exploitation of SC landholders by economically or socially dominant entities, it would not only subvert the legislative intent of protective statutes but also disturb the fragile peace in Scheduled Areas.
The law must intervene to uphold equity, prevent dispossession, and reinforce the constitutional promise of justice for the historically marginalised, the judgment concluded.
