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Hierarchy Of Revenue Officers Under Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887

Introduction:-

The governess of every department cannot be managed unless various officers are appointed to carry out the aims and objects enacted in a particular Act. Mere introduction of an Act on statute book is not enough, in the absence of the appointment of the officers, to implement the provisions thereof. A total chaos will be prevalent in case, hierarchy of officers is not provided in the Act.

In Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, a hierarchy of officers is provided for implementation of the law enacted by legislature. Punjab being a primarily an agriculture state, where most of the economy is based upon the agriculture, a provisions had to be made in the act for proper and true implementation of the provisions of the Act.

Hierarchy of Revenue officers:-

U/s 6 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, a number of officers are appointed for carrying out the aims and objects of the act. The said section provides following classes of revenue officers namely:

(a) The Financial Commissioner.

(b) The Commissioner

(c) The Collector

(d) The Assistant Collector of First Grade

(e) The Assistant Collector of the Second Grade.

The power to appoint officers is vested with the State Govt. vide which, it can appoint any assistant commissioner, extra assistant Commissioner or Tehsildar to be an Assistant Collector of the First or of the Second Grade, as it thinks fit and any Naib Tehsildar, to be an Assistant Collector of the Second Grade. A notification has to be made by the Govt. for appointing the aforesaid officers specially by name or by virtue of the office or of more persons than one by description sufficient for their identification.(Section 6(3)&(4) of the Act)

(a) FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER:- Financial Commissioner is the head of the revenue department. He is a person, who is of the secretary level. He discharges the function entrusted to him under the Act. U/s 7 of the aforesaid act, there can be one or more Financial Commissioner, which may be appointed by the State Govt. In case, more than one Financial Commissioner have been appointed, the State Govt. may make rules as to the distribution among them of business under this or any other act by those rules.

ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL/POWERS OF THE FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER:-

U/s 11(1) & (2) of the aforesaid Act, the Financial Commissioner has to work under the State Govt. The General Superintendence and Control over all other revenue officials, shall be vested in, and all such officers shall be subordinate to the Financial Commissioner. Financial Commissioner shall control all revenue officers in his division. Thus, it can be safely said that financial commissioner is the head of the revenue department who work under the superintendence and guidance of the State Govt.

POWERS OF THE FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER:-

(i) U/s 12 of the aforesaid act, the Financial Commissioner may by written order or distribute in such manner as it thinks fit, any business cognizable by any revenue officer under his control. The Financial Commissioner may withdraw any case pending before any Revenue officer under his control and either dispose of it there himself or by written order, referred to it for disposal to any other revenue officer under his control.

(ii) The power of withdrawal or transfer does not empower him to exercise any powers or deal with any business, which he would not be competent to exercise or deal with within the local limits of his own jurisdiction.

(iii) Powers of appeal, review and revision:-

The appeal shall lie from an original or appellate order made by a Commissioner. However, when the original order is confirmed on the first appeal, a further shall not lie.

(iv) Limitation for filing an appeal:-

The limitation for filing an appeal under section 13 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, shall run from the date of the order appeal against. The time limit providing for filing the appeal is before the Financial Commissioner is 90 days.

(v) General Powers of Superintendence/Revisional Power:-

U/s 16 of the Land Act, the Financial Commissioner may at any time, call for the record of any case, pending before, or disposed of by, any revenue officer, subordinate to him.

(b) THE COMMISSIONER:-

There are various divisions carved out in the State of Punjab. Each division is comprised of various districts. Every division has its own Commissioner, who exercise his control over the collector or any other officer, appointed or working in the division subordinate to him.

U/s 11 (3) of the aforesaid Act, the Commissioner has to work under the General Superintendence and control of the Financial Commissioner. The General Superintendence and Control over all other revenue officials working in his division, shall vest in, and all such officers shall be subordinate to the Commissioner. Commissioner shall control all revenue officers in his division. Thus, it can be safely said that Commissioner is the head of the revenue department of the division under his control, which work under the superintendence and guidance of the Financial Commissioner.

POWERS OF THE COMMISSIONER:-

(i) U/s 12 of the aforesaid act, the Commissioner may by written order or distribute in such manner as it thinks fit, any business cognizable by any revenue officer under his control in the division. The Commissioner may withdraw any case pending before any Revenue officer under his control and either dispose of it there himself or by written order, referred to it for disposal to any other revenue officer under his control in the division.

(ii) The power of withdrawal or transfer does not empower him to exercise any powers or deal with any business, which he would not be competent to exercise or deal with within the local limits of his own jurisdiction.

(iii) POWERS OF APPEAL, REVIEW AND REVISION:-

The appeal shall lie from an original or appellate order made by a Collector or other revenue officer before the Divisional Commissioner. However, when the original order is confirmed on the first appeal, a further shall not lie. When any such order is modified or reversed on appeal by the Collector, the order may be made by the commissioner on further appeal, if any, to him shall be final.

(iv) LIMITATION FOR FILING AN APPEAL:-

The limitation for filing an appeal under section 14 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, shall run from the original, or appellate order of a revenue officer shall be 60 days.

(v) POWER TO CALL FOR, EXAMINE & REVISE PROCEEDINGS OF REVENUE OFFICERS/REVISIONAL JURISDICTION:-

U/s 16 of the Land Revenue Act, the Commissioner may at any time, call for the record of any case, pending before, or disposed of by, any revenue officer, under his control.

(c) COLLECTOR:-

U/s 11(4) of the aforesaid Act, the Collector has to work under the supervision of Commissioner/Financial Commissioner/State Govt. The General Superintendence and Control over all other revenue officials posted in the district, shall be vested in, and all such officers shall be subordinate to the Collector and he shall control all revenue officers in his division. Thus, it can be safely said that Collector is the head of a particular District, who work under the superintendence and guidance of the Commissioner.

Powers of the Collector-

(i) U/s 12 of the aforesaid act, the Collector may by written order or distribute in such manner as it thinks fit, any business cognizable by any revenue officer under his control. The Collector may withdraw any case pending before any Revenue officer under his control and either dispose of it there himself or by written order, referred to it for disposal to any other revenue officer under his control.

(ii) The power of withdrawal or transfer does not empower him to exercise any powers or deal with any business, which he would not be competent to exercise or deal with within the local limits of his own jurisdiction.

(iii) Powers of appeal, review and revision:-

The appeal shall lie to the Collector, when the order is made by an Assistant Collector of an either grade.

(iv) Limitation for filing an appeal:-

The limitation for filing an appeal under section 13 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, shall run from the date of the order appealed against. The time limit provided for filing the appeal before the Commissioner is 30 days.

(v) General Powers of Superintendence/Revisional Power:-

U/s 16 (3) of the Land Revenue Act, the Collector may at any time, call for the record of any case, pending before, or disposed of by, any revenue officer, subordinate to him.

REVIEW BY REVENUE OFFICERS:-

Powers to review the orders made by the revenue officers has been conferred u/s 15 of the aforesaid Act. A revenue officer may either of his motion or on the application of any party interested, review and on so reviewing, modify, reverse or confirm any order passed by himself or any of his predecessor in office.

Provisos to this section:-

There are various provisos added in section 15 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, before exercising the powers of review by various revenue officers.

(i) Where a Commissioner or Collector thinks its necessary to review any order, which he has not himself passed, and when a revenue officer of a class below of that of collector purposes to review any order, whether passed by himself or by any of predecessor of his office, he shall first obtain sanction of the revenue officer, to whose control, he is immediately subject.

(ii) Thus, according to this section, the commissioner or the Collector, can review the order which have been passed by them. However, if any officer below the rank of Collector i.e. Assistant Collector First Grade or Second Grade proposes to review any order, then he is to first obtain the sanction of the Collector for doing so.

(iii) The third requirement is that the order may be passed by the Assistant Collector First Grade or Second Grade himself or by any of his predecessor in office.

(iv) The application for review of the order shall not be entertained unless it is made within 90 days from the passing of the order or unless the applicant satisfies the revenue officer that he has sufficient cause for not making the application within that period. Thus, power to condone delay on the lines of section 5 of the limitation act, has been conferred on the revenue officer.

(v) No order shall be modified or reversed, unless reasonable notice has been given to the parties effected thereby to appear and to be heard in support of that order. This section is based on the principle that no person should be condemned unheard and on the administrative dictum of the natural justice audi alterum partum.

(vi) The last condition is to the effect that an order against which, an appeal has been preferred shall not be review.

Thus, the powers of the appellate court, are preserved to pronounce on the legality and validity of the order under appeal, where no review is maintainable.

No appeal:-

U/s 15(3), no appeal shall lie from an order refusing to review or confirming on review a previous order. However, the revisional jurisdiction under section 16 can be revoked by the Competent officer in this regard.

Powers to make rules as to procedure:-

U/s 17 of the act, the State Govt. has been conferred with the powers to make rules consistent with the act for regulating the procedure of revenue officer under this act in cases, in which the procedure is not prescribed by the Act.

Assistant Collector of either grade:-

The powers of Assistant Collector of First Grade are normally vested in the Sub Divisional Magistrate of the District, while the powers of Assistant Collector Second Grade are vested in Tehsildar, appointed in a particular Tehsil. Various acts have duly performed by the Assistant Collector of either grade which are entrusted to them and are conferred to them under the Act. U/s 10 of the aforesaid act, it has been provided that except where the class of revenue officers by whom any function is to be discharged is specified in this act, the State Govt. may by notification, determine the functions to be discharged under this act by any class of revenue officers. Thus, the duties or functions to be performed by the Assistant Collector has to be specified by the State Govt. by way of notification made for this purpose.

Other Revenue officers:-

There are other revenue officers employed in the district viz. Kanugo and village officers under section 28 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, whose detailed powers and duties are provided and enumerated in the Punjab Land Record Manual.

[1*] The author passed degree in Master of Laws from the Panjab University Chandigarh in the year 1978. He has been practicing on civil side at Ludhiana. He has been a guest professor in Panjab University Regional Centre, Ludhiana. The author has written various articles, which have been published in the journals. The author has also addressed various webinars on facebook/youtube on various legal aspects to enlighten the younger generation. He had judged various moot competitions held in PURC, Ludhiana. Contact No. 9814712425, email: advocateajayjindal@gmail.com, Ch.No.425, 4th Floor, Advocates Complex, District Courts, Ludhiana, Punjab.

[2*] The co-author started attending the courts since May, 2011 and completed his law graduation from Panjab University, Chandigarh and is regularly doing practice on Civil Side. Email:-Abhayjindal14@yahoo.co.in, M No. 9814912425

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