BHUBANESWAR: Ending a 43-year-old private claim, the Board of Revenue has upheld the state’s ownership over 62.72 acre land in a prime location of Cuttack city.
The land is located in Tangi-Choudwar tehsil under the Cuttack Municipal Corporation and is estimated to be worth `800 crore.
Member, Board of Revenue Satyabrata Sahu pronounced the order, dismissing a revision petition filed under section 38-B of the Orissa Estates Abolition (OEA) Act, 1951.
The proceedings were initiated in compliance with an Orissa High Court order in a writ petition filed in 2006. The case underwent hearings on 26 different dates between 2022 and 2026.
The petitioners had claimed ownership and tenancy rights over the land based on an alleged registered lease deed executed in 1945 in favour of a private individual for setting up a jute mill. The lease was purportedly granted by Chandan Bilasini Dasi, widow of former intermediary Kali Krishna Sarkar. They had also relied on subsequent settlement and consolidation records to substantiate their claim.
However, rejecting the plea, the Board of Revenue held that Chandan Bilasini Dasi had only limited usufructuary rights under her husband’s will of 1905 and was not legally competent to grant permanent, heritable or transferable rights over the property. Consequently, the alleged lease could not confer any superior right on the lessee or his successors.
The Board further observed that following the vesting of the intermediary estate in the state government on May 1, 1954, the land, classified as ‘anabadi’ and ‘non-raiyati,’ vested absolutely in the government, free from all encumbrances.
The petitioners also failed to establish actual possession or agricultural cultivation of the land immediately before the date of vesting, a mandatory requirement under section 8(1) of the OEA Act. Field verification found portions of the land occupied by residential settlements, temples and industrial establishments, with no credible evidence of the petitioners’ possession.
The Board also clarified that Record of Rights, Jamabandi entries and rent receipts are merely fiscal documents and cannot independently establish ownership or tenancy rights.
Finding no illegality or procedural infirmity in the earlier orders passed by the sub-collector and additional district magistrate, Cuttack, the Board dismissed the revision petition and directed the Tangi-Choudwar tehsildar to retain the entire land in the government khata under the classification ‘Abada Jogya Anabadi’.
The Revenue and Disaster Management department’s persuasive action in the case proved instrumental in restoration of the land in government records.