The High Court of Karnataka has directed the Chief Secretary to take steps to create an online dashboard to identify properties by consolidating various types of numbers assigned to identify properties to prevent confusion.
The court said the dashboard should have the facility to cross-reference search to get different types of identification numbers assigned to a property such as survey numbers, Khaneshumari numbers, house list number, khatha numbers, and site numbers.
Also, the court directed the Chief Secretary to appoint a nodal officer, preferably an IAS officer, to coordinate with the Revenue Department, the Urban Development Department, urban development authorities, town planning authorities, municipal authorities, municipal corporations etc., in association with the E-governance Department, for creating the dashboard.
The Chief Secretary or the Secretary, e-governance, will have to submit within eight weeks a detailed project report to the court on creating the dashboard.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the direction while dismissing with a cost of ₹1 lakh a petition filed by a real estate development firm, which had questioned the action of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), which had said that the firm had encroached upon a portion of land belonging to the BDA at Yellikunte village in Begur hobli, Bengaluru South taluk.
The court found that the petitioner, Vandana Infra Estates, had tried to take advantage of the lacunae in the methodology of identification of land to make a false suggestion that the BDA did not own the land by relying on khatha/Khaneshumari numbers assigned to some of the properties, which the firm had in its possession adjoining land acquired by the BDA.
The dashboard matrix of numbering has to be such that for any particular property if there are different kinds of numbers or identifiers given, all such numbers and identifiers should be available for everyone to cross-refer, and combined numbering to be web hosted by all the departments concerned.
Court’s directions
Whenever a khatha/Khaneshumari certificate is issued, the same has to refer to survey number, Khaneshumari number, municipal number, or the like depending on the applicability.
The Record of Tenancy and Crops (RTC), tax paid receipts, land acquisition notifications, and any and all documents issued by any authority as regards a property should have all cross-reference numbers applicable to the particular land, the court said.
