The Supreme Court has reiterated that mutation of property in revenue records neither creates nor extinguishes the title to a property and the title of a property can only be decided by a competent civil court.
A bench of Justices M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose said an entry in revenue records does not confer title on a person whose name appears in record-of-rights.
“Entries in the revenue records or jamabandi have only “fiscal purpose”, i.e., payment of land revenue, and no ownership is conferred on the basis of such entries. It is further observed that so far as the title of the property is concerned, it can only be decided by a competent civil court,” the court said.
“As per the settled proposition of law, mutation entry does not confer any right, title or interest in favour of the person and the mutation entry in the revenue record is only for the fiscal purpose.
As per the settled proposition of law, if there is any dispute with respect to the title and more particularly when the mutation entry is sought to be made on the basis of the will, the party who is claiming title/right on the basis of the will has to approach the appropriate civil court/court and get his rights crystalised and only thereafter on the basis of the decision before the civil court necessary mutation entry can be made,” the bench said.
