Jharkhand HC Orders Removal of Land Prohibition List from NGDRS Portal

The Jharkhand High Court ordered the state government to remove a prohibited land list from the National Generic Document Registration System, or NGDRS, portal. LiveLaw reported that the bench issued this directive after finding that Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908, which served as the legal foundation for the list, had already been invalidated by prior judicial decisions. The court also instructed Sub-Registrars across the state to process deeds of transfer that meet statutory requirements, aiming to clear the backlog of pending registrations.

The ruling arose from a writ petition filed by Amit Ranjan, who sought removal of his 42-decimal land parcel in village Bonga from the prohibited list. According to LiveLaw, the petitioner argued that despite making representations to authorities, his land remained on the list, delaying property transactions. Justice Rajesh Shankar’s single judge bench found that keeping the list active caused undue hardship to landowners because Sub-Registrars often rejected valid sale deeds for properties included in the list.

The court referenced the Supreme Court’s Basant Nahata decision, which struck down Section 22-A as introduced by the Rajasthan Amendment Act, 1976, for breaching Articles 14 and 246 of the Constitution. It also cited an earlier Jharkhand High Court Division Bench judgment in Chotanagpur Diocesan Trust Association, which invalidated the section as adopted by Jharkhand alongside Notification No. 1132 dated August 26, 2015. The state’s Advocate General noted that two Special Leave Petitions challenging that Division Bench judgment were pending before the Supreme Court, but the court observed that no interim orders had been issued in those proceedings.

Rejecting the state’s suggestion that affected landowners should individually approach Deputy Commissioners for relief, the bench stated that it was inefficient to send petitioners to executive authorities when the statutory provision was already void. The court clarified that while registration does not establish valid ownership, registering authorities lack the power to decide title disputes and should not refuse registration if the Registration Act and Bihar Registration Rules, 1937, are met. The writ petition was disposed of with directions for the state to delete the list from the portal.