MARGAO
In an apparent bid to help quicken updation of the Record of Rights and reduce public hassles, the government has notified Registering Officers as Mamlatdars exclusively for the purpose of disposal of mutation cases under the Goa Land Revenue (Record of Rights and Register of Cultivators) Rules, 1969.
A notification issued by Under Secretary (Revenue-I) Sudin A Natu has delegated powers of Mamlatdars to the Registration Officers for the purpose of disposal of mutation cases where the right to any land has been acquired through a document registered before him.
A circular issued by Joint Secretary Revenue, Paresh Faldesai, however, has stated in clear terms that the Sub Registrars shall not initiate and certify the mutation if the name of the interested persons as defined in the Rules is not appearing in the occupant column of Form I & XIV and all such cases shall also be referred to the Mamlatdars for initiating mutation process as provided in rule 15(1).
Moreover, the circular states that the powers delegated to the Sub Registrars are prospective and in no case they will exercise the powers to certify the mutation of earlier cases of registration of documents which have been already referred to the Mamlatdars.
In an attempt to create a mechanism to enable the registration officers to discharge the delegated duties of Mamlatdars, the circular has mandated the Sub Registrars to check if all persons interested in the land have been given their consent for the mutation as per Rule 10 of Record of Rights and Register of Cultivators Rules, 1969.
“The persons interested as defined in this rule shall mean and includes the persons from whom the occupancy right is accrued to the applicant (transferee). They shall proceed to enter the mutation details in Dharni Rural and Dharni Urban and certify the mutation entry as certified in Record of Rights,” the circular stated.
That’s not all. The circular states that all the mutation entries entered in the online system on daily basis shall be disposed of in sequential manner; any change in the disposal of cases in the sequence maintained in the system shall be only on specific approval of the Collector.” The Sub Registrars shall certify the mutation entry where the right to any land has been acquired through a document registered before him and in Form I & XIV, all names of private persons are recorded as occupants/co-occupants and issue Form I & XIV (certified copy) to the applicant (transferee) on payment of feels. They shall not dispose of the mutation cases if in Form I & XIV the name of government, Comunidade is figuring as occupant or co-occupant or in other rights column. In all such cases, Form XIII has to be generated and electronically transmitted to the Mamlatdar for disposing of the mutation application.
...But it will be sometime before the initiative takes off as software issue needs to be sorted
MARGAO: While the government notification appointing the Registering Officer as Mamlatdars for the disposal of mutation cases was issued on September 28, the process is yet to start at the office of the Salcete Sub-Registrar.
Reason: Official in the know say that the software used by the office of the Mamlatdars is different than the one presently in operation at Sub-Registrar office. As a result, the office of the Salcete Sub-Registrar is yet to take up the issue of mutation cases as per the notification dated September 29, 2021, and the circular issued by the Joint Secretary, Revenue, dated November 17, 2021.
“It is only when the right mechanism and the software are installed at the office, the Salcete Sub Registrar will be able to start the mutation at the office,” an official added.
