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Current Kaveri 2.0 layout creates legal vacuum: Karnataka HC

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has directed the Departments of Stamps and Registration and Revenue to introduce a new workflow within Kaveri 2.0 titled Mutation Based on Civil Court Decree in collaboration with the Centre for Smart Governance (CSG). The court passed an order stating that the current configuration of Kaveri 2.0 inadvertently creates a legal vacuum, treating decrees of competent civil courts over property disputes as if they were extra-statutory or non-existent for mutation purposes, which compels citizens to seek multiple endorsements, verifications, and certifications for matters conclusively decided by courts. Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum issued the directions by allowing the petition filed by Gilbert Vas and others seeking directions to the Tahsildar of Bantwal taluk to consider their application and affect the khata transfer in their favour, as per the terms of the compromise final decree passed in an original suit by the sessions court in Dakshina Kannada. The court noted that the present Kaveri 2.0 framework, being primarily transaction-oriented (sale, gift, mortgage, inheritance), does not adequately accommodate mutations arising from civil court decrees. This has resulted in recurring administrative ambiguity when revenue authorities attempt to give effect to judicially declared rights. This scenario frustrates the object of Section 128 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, which seeks to ensure that all acquisitions of rights, whether by act of parties or operations of law, are duly recorded in the revenue registers, and also contravenes Section 135, which requires revenue records to be amended in accordance with judicial declarations, the court added. To restore coherence between judicial adjudication and administrative execution, and to ensure that binding civil court decrees automatically receive recognition within the states digital revenue infrastructure, the directions are issued, the court said.