Srinagar: A growing number of legal landowners in Jammu & Kashmir, frustrated by blatant land encroachments of land mafia using muscle power and civil disputes stemming from ambiguities and manipulation of land records, have decided to approach the Supreme Court. The group, comprising 21 members as of date, which met here on Monday, says ‘it has exhausted all administrative and legal remedies, often at the cost of their life savings, but with little resolution.’
The petitioners allege that innumerable legal landowners, despite possessing valid title deeds, registered land documents and physical and Court-established possession are trapped in civil litigations, blatant land encroachments caused by discrepancies in Revenue records and manipulation of documents. The result, they say, has been devastating for ordinary citizens — crippling livelihoods, eroding investments and plunging Jammu & Kashmir’s real estate sector into an unprecedented slump.
“People are increasingly reluctant to buy land in many parts of J&K because of the looming shadow of error-prone land record, litigation and the intimidating activities of local land mafia groups,” Riyaz Ahmed, one affected landowner told this newspaper.
“This is not only hurting landowners but also undermining the government’s own development activities and revenue generation targets”, said Rakesh Gupta, another affected land owner.
The move to file a petition follows years of disillusionment with the dispute-resolution system. Petitioners say they have approached Revenue officials, courts and administrative bodies, often in vain, with cases dragging on for years.
“In many instances, families have drained their savings fighting legal battles simply to protect what is rightfully theirs,” said Jatinder Singh, another landholder.
A key concern for the petitioners is the fresh land digitisation process in J&K. While authorities have presented the fresh digitisation as a step towards transparency, critics say the project risks replicating existing errors into digital databases, thereby legitimising flawed or manipulated records. The J&K Patwar Association has publicly voiced similar concerns, arguing that discrepancies could not be addressed in the first digitisation process undertaken by a private company and that these errors must first be resolved before any digitisation takes place. “Otherwise, the mistakes and manipulations of the past will simply be transferred into the new system,” an office bearer of the association said.
The petition also seeks the Supreme Court’s intervention in scrutinising unilateral changes made in land records during the recent land settlement process, which, according to the landowners, in certain cases, have undermined established rights of ownership and possession.
As part of their campaign, the group has invited other affected landowners to document their grievances by filling out a dedicated Google form. The objective is to consolidate evidence of widespread inconsistencies and bring collective weight to the Supreme Court petition.
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