Procedure for revision or preparation of record-of-rights under West Bengal land reform Act

1. Procedure for revision or preparation of record-of-rights.— When an order has been made under section 51 directing that a record-of-rights be revised or prepared by a Revenue Officer in respect of the land of any district or part thereof the record-of-rights shall be revised or prepared by the following processes, namely:

(i) Traverse survey;

(ii) Cadastral survey;

(iii) Preliminary record writing (or Khanapuri); .

(iv) Local explanation (or Bujharat);

(v) Attestation;

(vi) Publication of the draft record-of-rights;

(vii) Disposal of objections;

(viii) Preparation and publication of the final record-of-rights:

Provided that any of the steps referred to in items (i) to (v) may be omitted or amalgamated with another with the previous permission of the State Government:
[Provided further that a Revenue Officer who has been appointed with the additional designation of Settlement Officer, may, either on his own motion or on receipt of applications from others at any time before final publication of the record-of-rights, direct
(i) that any portion of the proceedings in respect of the revision or preparation of the record-of-rights of any district or part thereof shall be cancelled and that such proceedings shall be carried out de novo from such stage as he may direct. No notice of such cancellation, whether on own motion or on application, shall be required to be given or shall be deemed to have been required to be given, but before proceedings are carried out de novo from the stage as may be directed, a proclamation by beat of drums of the proposed proceedings shall be served in the district or part thereof;

(ii) that names of bargadars shall be incorporated in the record- of-rights by the Revenue Officer subordinate to him after holding such enquiry and after giving the persons claiming as bargadars and the owners of the land concerned such opportunity of being heard as the Revenue Officer may deem fit;

(iii) that the persons claiming as bargadars and persons claiming as owners of the land concerned shall be deemed to have been given an opportunity of being heard as required under item (ii) if, within one week, before the inquiry, the Revenue Officer publishes a notice of his intention of inquiry by affixing a notice to some conspicuous part of the village/mauza in which the land affected is situated, and by affixing a notice to a conspicuous place in the office of the Gram Panchayat within whose jurisdiction the land affected is situated;

(iv) that names of occupiers of land who have been given the status of a raiyat or a non-agricultural tenant, as the case may be, under the West Bengal Acquisition and Settlement of Homestead Land Act, 1969 (West Bengal Act XV of 1969) or the West Bengal Acquisition of Homestead Land for Agricultural Labourers, Artisans and Fishermen Act, 1975 (West Bengal Act XLVII of 1975) shall be recorded as such by the Revenue Officer subordinate to him by opening a Khatian for each of them; or

(v) that names of transferor to whom land has been restored under the West Bengal Restoration of Alienated Land Act, 1973 (West Bengal Act No. 23 of 1973) shall be recorded in the record-of-rights by the Revenue Officer subordinate to him:]

Provided further that anything done or any action taken under clause 1 as amended by Notification Nos. 3290-L-Ref. dated the 9th September 1978, 1960-L. Ref., dated the 26th May, 1979 and 1592-L. Ref., dated the 30th July, 1980 shall be deemed to have been validly done or taken with effect from the respective dates when such clause had come into operation and that anything so done or any action so taken shall be deemed to have constituted an opportunity of being heard to each party entitled thereto.]
[(vi) that names of persons with whom lands have been settled under section 49 and who have been given pattas shall be recorded as raiyats by the Revenue Officer subordinate to him by opening a khatian for each of them.]

2. Traverse Survey.— The cadastral survey of any district or part of a district of which an order under sub-section (1) of section 51 for revision or preparation of record-of-rights has been made, shall be based upon a traverse survey, and such traverse survey shall ordinarily be carried out by theodolite observations.

3. Cadastral Survey.— (1) In the course of proceedings under sub-section (1) of section 51 a large-scale map showing roads, rivers, railways and other physical features of the country, as well as homesteads and other fields, shall be prepared for each village as adopted in the general land revenue survey which has been made in the State of West Bengal or in any survey made by the State Government by notification in the Official Gazette as defining villages in any specified are:

Provided that for any specified area, whether previously notified as a village or not, the State Government may direct that the preparation of a map as aforesaid be dispensed with or that such map be prepared either by adopting any map or plan previously prepared by the Government or by any local authority or by any private party after such modification, if any, as may be considered necessary with a view to representing the existing state of affairs, for the purpose of the revision or preparation of the record-of-rights under the Act.

(2) When the area contained within the external boundaries of the village maps of the previous survey contemplated by sub-paragraph (1) is unsuitable as the unit of survey and record, the Settlement Officer shall, after ascertaining as far as possible the opinions of the raiyats concerned, submit his proposals for the determination of the area to be adopted as the unit of record any survey to the Board of Revenue through the controlling officers to whom he is subordinate. That unit shall, if sanctioned by the Board of Revenue, be adopted ‘ in framing the record-of-rights and shall be deemed to constitute a village when a notification adopting it as such has been issued in the Official Gazette by the State Government. The Board of Revenue shall submit a copy of its order in each case to the State Government for the issue of the notification.

4. Khanapuri.— At this and the two following stages the draft record-of rights shall be revised or prepared. The draft record shall consist of statements of rights which are hereinafter styled the Khatians. There shall ordinarily be a separate khatian for each person interested, or each group of persons jointly interested, in the land and each khatian shall show the rights and liabilities of each person or group of persons according to the particulars referred to in Rule 23. At this stage all such particulars shall be entered in the draft record-of-rights. At this stage there shall also be prepared a field index or khasra arranged according to the serial numbers of the fields in the villages. This field index shall not form part of the draft record-of-rights.

5. Bujharat.— When the areas of the fields have been extracted and entered in the draft record-of-rights, a copy of each khatian shall be made over by a Revenue Officer to the person or body or persons in whose name or names the khatian has been opened or to their representatives. Each khatian shall then be examined on the ground, with reference to the village map, by a Revenue Officer or such other person as may be authorised by him in this behalf and explained to the person or persons concerned on their representatives, if present. In this process the Revenue Officer or the authorised person shall make such corrections as are necessary in the map, in the draft records, and in the copies of the khatians which have been distributed, if they can be produced for this purpose. At this stage entries of the revenue and cesses which are payable according to the statement of the raiyat shall be made in the draft khatians of the raiyats and in such copies as are produced; but the other particulars which are omitted at the stage of khanapuri record writing shall be deferred until the stage of attestation.

Explanation I.— If the name of a bargadar or an occupier of land or a transferor, referred to in the second proviso to clause I, is recorded at a stage subsequent to Bujharat, a copy of each khatian shall be made over by the Revenue Officer to the person in whose name the khatian has been opened or to his representative.

Explanation II.— In the case of a bargadar, the Revenue Officer may, pending issue of a copy of the khatian, give a certificate to the .bargadar in such form as the State Government may prescribe:
Provided that anything done or any action taken under Explanation I or Explanation II as incorporated by Notification No. 3290-L. Ref., dated the 9th September, 1978 and 1592-L Ref. dated the 30th July, 1980 shall be deemed to have been validly taken with effect from the 9th September, 1978.

Source : West Bengal land Reforms Rules