Spot Girdawari: Ground realities in Kashmir’s Revenue records

By Mohammad Amin Mir

Once a hallmark of the Revenue Department’s integrity, girdawari — the seasonal crop inspection and land record verification — has quietly undergone a transformation. The days when patwaris, the primary custodians of rural land records, would traverse fields, engage with cultivators, and document the reality of every survey number on the ground are rapidly fading into nostalgia.

In its place has emergeed  desk-bound alternative: patwari khana girdawari. Instead of walking the land, speaking to farmers, and observing crop patterns firsthand, patwaris now often fill the crucial pages of roznamcha girdawari from the comfort — or confinement — of their offices.

This shift may appear benign or even efficient at first glance. But in practice, it represents a breakdown of the very foundation of rural land administration: observation-based truth.

Girdawari is not a clerical formality. It is a field operation carried out twice a year — rabi and kharif seasons — where the patwari records the kind of crop sown, the name of the cultivator in possession, the mode of possession (owner, tenant, lessee, encroacher), irrigation source, and any disputes or anomalies.

This data becomes the basis for:

Crop insurance claims

Disaster relief compensation

Tenancy and land possession verification

Mutation legitimacy

Legal proceedings in civil and revenue courts.

Thus, the sanctity of girdawari defines the legal identity of land usage and possessory rights. It is not just a register; it is a statement of land truth.

Over the past two decades, multiple factors have contributed to the steady decline of spot girdawari:

1. Administrative Overburdening:

Patwaris today are assigned a staggering array of non-revenue duties — from election duties to survey work, verification of ration cards, certificates, flood damage assessments, even acting as court clerks for tehsildars.

2. Lack of Manpower:

Many halqas are without full-time patwaris or have one patwari for multiple villages. Girdawari, being time-sensitive and seasonal, suffers amid competing demands.

3. Desk-Centric Digitization:

The push for digitizing jamabandis and mutation registers has ironically made patwaris more office-bound than field-facing. Time once meant for fieldwork is now spent scanning, uploading, correcting, and printing.

4. Poor Monitoring:

Spot girdawari was once verified by girdawars and naib tehsildars through physical sampling. Today, with fewer inspections and almost no disciplinary consequences, office-made girdawaris go unchecked.

The consequences of this silent shift are now showing in tangible ways:

Encroachers Get Legitimacy:

Cultivators who may have forcefully encroached land can find their names quietly entered in the girdawari, laying the ground for mutation or possession claims later.

Landowners Are Erased:

In absentee landlord scenarios or where family disputes exist, actual owners often find their names missing because no one consulted them during khana girdawari.

Compensation Goes to the Wrong Hands:

During flood, drought, or hailstorm relief, ineligible cultivators listed in office-made girdawaris receive government aid while genuine farmers are left out.

Legal Disputes Multiply:

Courts are flooded with cases where multiple parties claim to be in possession, all backed by contradictory girdawari entries made without field verification.

It is critical to understand that Roznamcha Girdawari is an official record with evidentiary value in courts and revenue proceedings. When fabricated or unverified, it undermines the very credibility of the revenue system.

Courts often give presumptive weight to girdawari unless challenged with strong evidence. A patwari khana entry can become a title claim in future disputes, making such office-based entries dangerous legal tools.

In the absence of reliable ground verification, even mutations carried out on the basis of girdawari become legally questionable.

Jammu and Kashmir is undergoing a major land record modernization programme. But no amount of digitization will matter if the source data — girdawari — is inaccurate.

Land revenue cannot be correctly assessed without crop data.

Ablution of physical verification leads to ghost cultivators and fabricated tenancies.

Inconsistencies between jamabandi and girdawari create a legal quagmire.

A modern revenue department needs real-time, reliable, and field-generated data — not conjectural data filled under pressure.

Interviews with farmers across South Kashmir reveal a disturbing trend: Most cultivators are unaware of when girdawari is conducted. They are never consulted. Some only discover their names are missing when they approach patwaris for a fard or face an unexpected eviction suit.

“I have cultivated this land for 30 years,” said one farmer in Anantnag. “But when I applied for PM crop insurance, I was told I’m not in the girdawari Someone else is listed — who has never set foot on the land.”

Reform is possible, but it must be deliberate and rooted in field-based accountability. Here are key suggestions:

1. Reinstitution of Spot Girdawari as a Legal Mandate

Make on-spot girdawari a statutory obligation under the Land Revenue Act.

Treat failure to conduct field verification as dereliction of duty.

2. Mobile-Based Girdawari Apps with Geo-Tagged Photos

Develop simple mobile applications that patwaris must use during field visits to record crops with location-stamped images.

This technology already exists and can be trialed in a few halqas before wider rollout.

3. Time-Bound Girdawari Window and Public Notices

Mandate a girdawari season (e.g., April–May for rabi, October–November for kharif) with advance public notice in every village.

Farmers should be informed via loudspeakers, chowkidars, and local notices.

4. Verification by Girdawars and Revenue Inspectors

Make it mandatory for the girdawar to physically sample-check at least 25% of survey numbers in every girdawari season.

Their signatures should validate the authenticity of patwari’s work.

5. Community Participation in Disputed Survey Numbers

In cases of disputes or recent change of possession, the patwari must record statements from both parties and note the dispute in the remarks column.

Let courts decide possession, but let facts be fully recorded.

6. Annual Audit of Girdawaris

Create a district-level cell to randomly audit girdawari entries from selected villages every year and cross-verify with farmers and crop images.

If 20% entries are found fabricated, take departmental action.

The patwari is not a mere clerk. He is the ground emissary of the state, the first recorder of rural reality, and the witness of possession. When his feet stop walking the fields, the eyes of the revenue system go blind.

The shift to patwari khana girdawari is not just a procedural lapse — it is a symptom of a deeper erosion of public service ethos. If allowed to continue, it will delegitimize the entire structure of rural land administration.

The solution lies not in grand reforms but in small restitutions: Let the patwari walk the land. Let the cultivator speak. Let the record reflect the ground, not the office.

Only then can we restore confidence in our most basic revenue institution — the roznamcha girdawari.