record of rights

In Karnataka the record of rights is the RTC (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops), also called the pahani, kept under Chapter XI (ss.127 to 136) of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964. It shows the holder, occupant, tenant, encumbrances and crops for each survey number. Anyone who acquires a right by succession, sale, partition or otherwise must report it (s.128), and changes are entered through the register of mutations (s.129).

Under s.133 an entry is presumed true until the contrary is proved. But revenue entries are for fiscal purposes: they do not create or extinguish title. A dispute about title is for the civil court, as the Supreme Court held in Suraj Bhan. Students often confuse the RTC (land record) with khata (property tax record).

Example

The RTC stood in the seller's name, but since revenue entries do not confer title, the buyer still had to prove title in the civil suit.

In Indian law

• Sections 127–136, Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964 (s.133: presumption of correctness)
• Suraj Bhan v. Financial Commissioner, 2007 INSC 424: revenue entries do not confer title

See also

mutation · khata · patta · title

Read more in the study notes

• Record of rights, mutation and patta book, and realisation of land revenue (Land Law)
• Interlocutory applications and affidavits (Drafting, Pleading and Conveyance)
• Conveyancing principles and the sale deed (Drafting, Pleading and Conveyance)
• Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961: cultivation of uncultivated land, co-operative farms, and fragmentation and consolidation of holdings (Land Law)