Pattas Obtained By Fraud Or Concealment Do Not Confer Any Right, Limitation Not A Bar For Cancellation Of Such Land Assignments: Rajasthan High Court

Rajasthan High Court has recently iterated that if a patta has been obtained by fraud or concealment, there lies no bar of limitation to cancel such allotment. “…The allotment has rightly been cancelled by the Additional Collector because the allotment itself was made in favour of the father of the petitioners in contravention of the Rules by treating him as a “landless person” while he was in possession of bighas of land at the time of allotment and he was not a landless person…”, the bench sitting at Jaipur noted adding that the misrepresentation made by petitioner's father formed the foundation of such an allotment under Rule 2 of Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956. Finally, the Board of Revenue, in 2011, cancelled both allotments made in favour of the petitioner's father, essentially agreeing with the initial decision made by the court of Additional Collector. At the time of land allotments, the petitioner's father already had 31 Bigha and 8 Biswa of land which was deliberately not made known to the authorities, the court deduced from the evidence on record. Therefore, the court held that the Additional Collector, Jaipur has rightly exercised his powers under Rule 44 of Rajasthan Land Revenue Rules, 1970 to annul the allotment of two parcels of land admeasuring i) 7 Bighas, and ii) 7 Bighas and 17 Biswas, allocated in 1961 and 1964 respectively.