BD Sharma
Revenue Department used to be the backbone of the Government. One of the reasons for its preeminence was its responsibility to manage the most valuable asset of the government, namely the land. Secondly the land revenue used to be the major source of income of the state. 70 percent income of the Lahore kingdom under Maharaja Ranjit Singh used to come from the land revenue. Similarly out of the total annual income of Rs. 66,86,644 (Chilki), the land revenue contributed Rs.44,41,585(1871-72) . Apart from this, all the vacant lands were at the disposal of a sovereign which gave him the means for distributing bounties to his favourites. Thus big chunks of land were given as Jagirs by the ruler to his nears and dears, other chunks were gifted to religious institutions for their maintenance and many Mura’bbas (square plots) were given to the braves for their acts of valour. Almost the whole of the population used to be dependent on land for their livelihood because of which its managers/ administrators enjoyed a lot of prestige and esteem in the society. Land being the main source of revenue the English, on assuming power in India modelled their administrative set-up in such a way as would ensure smooth collection of land revenue. They divided the country in the convenient and manageable administrative units called districts which continued to be the most important and significant units of administration. As the collection of land revenue was the foremost duty of its head so he was designated as Collector (responsible for ‘collecting’ the land revenue). Similarly his immediate subordinate Tehsildar was so called because his duty was to “haasil karna” land revenue.
The office of Collector got its origin during the time of Warren Hastings, the first Governor General. It got strengthened and glorified gradually. Later Collector came to be known as Deputy Commissioner also in some states when another unit, the Commissionerate was introduced as a bigger unit above the level of district. Collector had to perform multifarious duties apart from collection of land revenue. Gradual conferment of responsibilities has made him District Magistrate responsible to oversee law and order, to supervise jails, to issue PSA warrants, arms licences. He is the issuing authority for many other licences. He is responsible for getting updating of revenue records, for land acquisition, for disaster management, for conduct of elections, for enforcement of Essential Goods Act and many other tasks of the government. He is the chairman of more than sixty district level committees/boards such Sainik Welfare Board, Red Cross Society, Regional Transport Authority etc. With the single line administration coming into force he has been made District Development Commissioner to prepare district development plans
and to oversee its execution in the district. He has been given the powers of Head of the Department of all development related departments in his district.
The revenue system was modelled on the pattern of Punjab by our Maharaja in our State. The head of the Revenue Department in Punjab was known as the Financial Commissioner, Revenue who used to be the most important functionary after the Lt Governor there. In order to streamline the working of the Revenue Department the Financial Commissioner had the vast powers of managing land administration and in the absence of any formal Acts and rules, he formulated 68 Standing Orders. These Standing Orders were so exhaustive and comprehensive that the department was run smoothly on the guidelines given in them. Majority of these Standing Orders became redundant with the passage of time and with the enactment of many Acts and rules on the subject. But a few of them like the three Standing Orders on attestation of Mutations, conducting of Crop Inspection and preparation of Jamabandis are in vogue even today. The Financial Commissioner, Revenue continued to enjoy an exalted position in the hierarchy of government till recently. He used to be the ex-officio Additional Chief Secretary, meaning next to the Chief Secretary. He was chairman/member of many high powered Committees of the government. His exalted position helped the Department to have a prominent place in the scheme of governance. The revenue laws did also provide vast powers to FC, Revenue. In accordance with the Land Revenue Act the Financial Commissioner in the exercise of his powers of Revision can call for the record of any case decided by or pending before any Revenue officer in the UT and pass any order/directions thereon. Such sweeping powers are enjoyed by very few institutions in our country.
With the passage of time the glow and glory of the Revenue Department started getting shorn off. The foremost reason was that the land revenue as the source of income of the government became insignificant. With industrialization and expansion of commerce activities the inflow of income from taxation overtook the land revenue. So much so that the income from land revenue became insignificant and it was abolished altogether by our Government in 2003. Taxation became so major a source of income of the government that the term ‘Revenue’ came to be associated with taxation departments more than with the Revenue Department. Some people think that the Indian Revenue Service(IRS) has some link with the Land administration department. The fact is that it has got nothing to do with it. This newborn service, in fact, has come to enjoy much prestige and recognition in the society as well as in the corridors of power and the original Revenue Service is simply finding itself shifted to the periphery.
The post of Financial Commissioner has also lost much of a shine. These days 3/4 officers attain the grade of Chief Secretary but more than one officer can not be
designated as Chief Secretary. So they are designated as Financial Commissioners. Consequently there are many Financial Commissioners now in the higher echelons of administration such as FC(Home), FC (Agriculture), FC(Finance) and the like. Most of these new avatars of Financial Commissioner are senior to the patent Financial Commissioner (FC Revenue) and the latter has become an insignificant entity in the administrative hierarchy. If the readers allow me to borrow words from the famous Urdu poet Daag Dehlvi, the FC Revenue must be murmuring: “Tukarhe kar daale hamaare naam ke”. In addition these days very junior officers in the IAS seniority are being posted as FC Revenue and as a result his say and influence in the higher echelons of administration is very limited. So the issues and problems vis-à-vis other departments are not resolved so expeditiously. To add insult to injury the post of the Financial Commissioner is not many times filled with a regular incumbent and an officer of another department is given the charge of FC(Revenue) as an additional charge. The officer given additional charge cannot pay undivided attention to this office and the work of the department particularly the court work suffers a lot. This arrangement may be to the liking of some staff members(for whom cat is away) and few next-date-seeking vakils but the poor litigant farmers are the worst sufferers because of it. Gone are the days when Financial Commissioners used to hold regular court and findings on intricate revenue matters were given by them. In this way not only disputes of the public were resolved but guidelines of the highest revenue court would become available to the subordinate Revenue officers to follow. Similarly in the absence of regular FCs, thorough and detailed inspections of subordinate Revenue offices are not being conducted regularly and consequently command and control mechanism in the department is in doldrums.
Though the Deputy Commissioner still remains the most glorified middle rung functionary of the government yet it is more because of his being District Development Commissioner than being a Collector. Deputy Commissioner has not much time to give attention to the revenue work and so the same is being delegated to ADCs, ACRs/SDMs. But they don’t wield the same amount of authority as the Dy Commissioner can. Consequently the command and control at the critical level of the Collector(Dy Commissioner) as seen in the past has also ,of late, got eroded.
The state of affairs of other Revenue courts has also deteriorated much. Many officers posted in Revenue Department lack familiarity with Urdu language in which the basic revenue record is prepared. Similarly officers having no experience of dealing with Revenue matters are being frequently posted at the Tehsildar/AC level where proficiency in the Revenue laws/Rules is mostly required. Though the new crop of officers being posted in the department are very brilliant yet they are unable to do justice to their job because they are not equipped with the basic tools of their job. Many Advocates point out that some of the Revenue officers depend completely upon the readers or lower functionaries while
hearing the court cases. Majority of these officers can’t make anything out of even basic terms such as Khat Chalipa, Khata, Khewat, Fard Badar, Parta deh, Hadh Basat, Aks Latha, Massavi and the like. So they have to seek clarifications at every step from their subordinates in the open court. This makes the whole process of court proceedings not only comical but also artificial. There is no harm in the presiding officer seeking a clarification from his subordinates here and there but depending completely on a subordinate on every turn of the hearing is not appreciable. In this way there is neither a proper appreciation of the issues by them nor is there proper application of mind in deciding the cases. It is not only the delivery of justice which is being effected but the courtliness in the department has got lowered. Vakils have been heard terming the Revenue courts as Kangaroo courts. The authorities should not put the square pegs in the round holes so that the litigants may not suffer on this count. Unfortunately such maladjustments are not being brought to the notice of authorities by the advocates or the public representatives also.
One may say that the Revenue department is not strictly a technical department and all the generalists are entitled to be posted in the department. It is, however, pointed out that the officers who have no grooming in the Revenue department, who have no knowledge of Urdu language, who are not acquainted with the basic parlance and terminology of the department, who lack knowledge of basic principles and procedure of civil/Revenue law can not do justice to their job. There may be instances where some officers who had no background of working in the Revenue department performing their duties efficiently by dent of their dedication, interest, inclination and urge of working in the department. They acquire working knowledge of the Revenue matters quickly and do pull the cart smoothly. Unfortunately number of such officers is very less.
Revenue department had a fair share of very dedicated employees /officers who helped the government to conduct Settlement operations and to carry out land reforms. Walter Lawrence remains at the top of the list. He brought Maharaja Partap Singh round to grant heritable assami rights to the poor farmers over the land. He did also come out with a book out of his experiences in the Revenue department which remains one of most authoritative account on Kashmir valley. He had done his work so thoroughly that the authorities depend upon his findings even today while arriving at decisions. Even the farmers have faith in the findings of their “Laren” saheb even after a lapse of 130 years of his setting the parameters such as distributing the irrigation water between communities. Later on also we had galaxy of officers like M/s Ram Chand Dubey, Pt Anant Ram Dogra, RC Raina,S.A. Qadri, Ch Bharat Bhushan, KD Sharma who conducted settlement operations and carried out land reforms very efficiently. We had a share of idiosyncratic fellows also in the department. A deranged Revenue officer used to proclaim himself to be the messenger
of God even. Another could throw rationality to the winds through the medium of strange logic. He attested a mutation of inheritance devolving the estate of a deceased Sikh in favour of a Muslim on the ground of fulfilling the ideal of the then Prime Minister: Sheikh saheb ka kya Irshad:: Hindu Muslim Sikh Itehad. Strange it may look but what a wonderful way he found out to give benefit to his favourite and that too with justification.
It will be in the interest of government work and for the welfare of the large section of our society, majority of them being poor farmers that an appraisal of the aptitude and inclination of the officers is taken while posting them in the Revenue department specially at Tehsildar/AC level and preference be given to those who have interest in the land related, agriculture related and village life related matters. Moreover orientation and refresher courses to the new/fresh entrants should be taken up from time to not only for giving them insights in the modern tools of Management developed at Wisconsin University but also in learning the problems being faced by our farmers in our villages and the ways of solving them. Frequent inspections by senior Revenue officers and monitoring the action taken on them will also go a long way to get the Revenue machinery oiled well.
(The author is former Civil Servant)
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