K’taka HC Directs Revenue Dept To Develop System For Monitoring Progress Of Land Conversion Applications

The Karnataka High Court has recently directed the Principal Secretary of the Revenue Department to establish a mechanism for monitoring the progress of applications filed under Section 95 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act for land conversion.

A single judge bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj sitting at Kalaburagi highlighted the occurrence of numerous cases where filed conversion applications remained unaddressed, leading to unnecessary legal disputes. Consequently, the court instructed the Department to implement a system that records various application details, such as the date of submission and the time taken for disposal. These details should be made available on the concerned Deputy Commissioner’s website.

Furthermore, the Department must specify the date when deemed conversion takes effect according to Section 95(5) of the Act. This provision states that if the Deputy Commissioner fails to notify the applicant of their decision within four months from the application’s receipt, the requested permission is considered granted.

The direction was issued while granting the petition of Abdul Rehman, who had applied for the conversion of his agricultural land to non-agricultural residential use under Section 95(2) in 2020. An objection was raised by the Revenue Inspector regarding an existing loan on the property. Subsequently, Rehman repaid the loan and a reconveyance deed was executed in August 2022. Despite submitting multiple representations for the application’s consideration, no action was taken by the respondents. Consequently, Rehman approached the court seeking intervention.

The court clarified that Section 95(5), concerning deemed conversion, also applies once the applicant has addressed any objections, granting the Deputy Commissioner four months to raise further objections if necessary.

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Since in this case no such objection had been raised after the earlier objection had been complied with by the petitioner, Court said Section 95(5) of the Act would come into play. “Thus, bringing about a deeming fiction in respect of the conversion of the land on account of the application not being processed within the said period.”

Consequently, the bench granted the petition and directed the respondents to issue a formal conversion order within a period of six weeks.