Indian Express: Ahmedabad: Thursday, 30 October 2025.
The Commission ordered the various concerned revenue authorities of Jamnagar to carry out intensive efforts to trace the document and provide it to Rathod free of cost after it is recovered.
In a significant order,
the Gujarat State Information Commission has recommended two departments of the
state government Revenue, and Panchayat, Rural Housing & Rural Development
to create arrangements so that people can access and get records related to
various land parcels allotted to them under various government schemes in the
past from an online portal.
State Information Commissioner Nikhil Bhatt passed the order on October 14 while dealing with a second appeal filed by one Hirabhai Rathod from Moti Matli village of Kalavad taluka of Jamnagar district. Rathod was allotted some land parcels under a government initiative in 1966. He had sought four different revenue documents related to the allotment of land from the concerned revenue authorities in Jamnagar under the provisions of the Right to Information Act. However, as he was not provided the full information sought on the ground that it was not available, Rathod first moved a first appeal and then a second one before the Commission.
During the pendency of the second appeal, following orders of the Commission, Rathod got three documents he had sought from the authorities. However, the fourth document Chaturdisha no Sketch (a sketch of the allotted land with four directions at the relevant time) was yet to be provided to him since “it was not found”.
The Commission ordered the various concerned revenue authorities of Jamnagar to carry out intensive efforts to trace the document and provide it to Rathod free of cost after it is recovered.
In its order, the Commission also expressed concern over the fact that around 40-50% of the second appeals that the Commission gets related to the Revenue department are related to the four documents concerning agricultural or residential plots of land allotted to people by the government which are not available. It said that when people have partial records of the four documents, they seek it through RTI applications for some transactions. And those documents are made available only after the orders of the Commission.
“In this context, if the Revenue and Panchayat departments carry out a special drive and put available records online on a specially developed portal, innumerable poor and needy families whom the state government has distributed land/plots in the past to bring them above the poverty line can get all the records related to such land/plots. In this regard, it has come to the knowledge of the Commission that owing to lack of intense search of documents by different offices, litigants face immense hardship,” the Commission observed in its order.
Eventually, the Commission made the recommendations to the departments of Revenue and Panchayat, Rural Housing and Rural Development to make arrangements to provide documents related to allotment of land to people on a portal in digital format so that people can view the same and get its copy online. In this context, the Commission also cited the portal of the Revenue department which contains current and past records of rights of revenue survey numbers. It recommended the Revenue department to put the records related to allotment of land parcels on the existing portal itself. Whereas, it recommended the Panchayat, Rural Housing and Rural Development to develop a similar portal providing facilities where people can get the records related to the allotted plots/land online.
The Commission also noted that records related to land allotment falls under A category of documents which is permanent. It suggested that easy availability of such records will bring down the number of RTI applications in the offices of the departments of Revenue and Panchayat, Rural Housing & Rural Development.
The Commission ordered the various concerned revenue authorities of Jamnagar to carry out intensive efforts to trace the document and provide it to Rathod free of cost after it is recovered.
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| Commission also noted that records related to land allotment falls under A category of documents which is permanent. (File Photo) |
State Information Commissioner Nikhil Bhatt passed the order on October 14 while dealing with a second appeal filed by one Hirabhai Rathod from Moti Matli village of Kalavad taluka of Jamnagar district. Rathod was allotted some land parcels under a government initiative in 1966. He had sought four different revenue documents related to the allotment of land from the concerned revenue authorities in Jamnagar under the provisions of the Right to Information Act. However, as he was not provided the full information sought on the ground that it was not available, Rathod first moved a first appeal and then a second one before the Commission.
During the pendency of the second appeal, following orders of the Commission, Rathod got three documents he had sought from the authorities. However, the fourth document Chaturdisha no Sketch (a sketch of the allotted land with four directions at the relevant time) was yet to be provided to him since “it was not found”.
The Commission ordered the various concerned revenue authorities of Jamnagar to carry out intensive efforts to trace the document and provide it to Rathod free of cost after it is recovered.
In its order, the Commission also expressed concern over the fact that around 40-50% of the second appeals that the Commission gets related to the Revenue department are related to the four documents concerning agricultural or residential plots of land allotted to people by the government which are not available. It said that when people have partial records of the four documents, they seek it through RTI applications for some transactions. And those documents are made available only after the orders of the Commission.
“In this context, if the Revenue and Panchayat departments carry out a special drive and put available records online on a specially developed portal, innumerable poor and needy families whom the state government has distributed land/plots in the past to bring them above the poverty line can get all the records related to such land/plots. In this regard, it has come to the knowledge of the Commission that owing to lack of intense search of documents by different offices, litigants face immense hardship,” the Commission observed in its order.
Eventually, the Commission made the recommendations to the departments of Revenue and Panchayat, Rural Housing and Rural Development to make arrangements to provide documents related to allotment of land to people on a portal in digital format so that people can view the same and get its copy online. In this context, the Commission also cited the portal of the Revenue department which contains current and past records of rights of revenue survey numbers. It recommended the Revenue department to put the records related to allotment of land parcels on the existing portal itself. Whereas, it recommended the Panchayat, Rural Housing and Rural Development to develop a similar portal providing facilities where people can get the records related to the allotted plots/land online.
The Commission also noted that records related to land allotment falls under A category of documents which is permanent. It suggested that easy availability of such records will bring down the number of RTI applications in the offices of the departments of Revenue and Panchayat, Rural Housing & Rural Development.
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