Land records missing from revenue office of Maharashtra
26 Mar, 2013An application was filed with the talathi office of Vavanje village, Panvel taluka in Maharashtra under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details of the mutation entries of the land owned by the applicant.
The talathi and public information officer didn’t provide the demanded information within the prescribed time limit and the applicant filed the first appeal with the tehsildar of the Panvel tehsil office, who is also the first appellate authority. However, the first appellate authority didn’t pass any order on the appeal. The aggrieved appellant then filed the second appeal with the state information commission (SIC) accusing the revenue officials of employing delaying tactics. Meanwhile the PIO sent the reply to the applicant stating that the information could not be provided as the register of the sought mutation entries were not available with the revenue office. The reply also stated that the office had no information regarding the then talathi/tehsildar of the office.
The SIC, not convinced with the PIO’s reply, said that a criminal complaint be registered under Maharashtra Public Records Act and ordered the PIO to find the record and provide it to the appellant.