REPORT OF THE EXPERT GROUP ON PREVENTION OF ALIENATION OF
TRIBAL LAND AND ITS RESTORATION

Formed on 20-04-2000

  SUBMITTED TO

MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

II. LAND RIGHTS OF SCHEDULED TRIBES

(i) Identification of Land Rights

8. The Expert Group considers it a serious irony and regrettable debacle that decades of effort to extend the Survey and Settlement operations in the Scheduled Areas and conferment of clear title to all forms of entitlement of land and other land-based resources to Scheduled Tribes have, instead of improving the situation, contributed to its deterioration. Large extent of land in several states over which members of Scheduled Tribes have had ownership rights or customary rights for centuries has neither been surveyed nor settled with clear proprietary titles for Scheduled Tribes. This is much true of the land settled even in terms of Forest Settlement Acts under which the reserve forest has been identified in different states. In areas where surveys and settlement operations have been extended, the conventional and corrupt processes have lead to innumerable errors, anomalies and discrepancies which have taken decades to be to sorted out or are yet to be sorted out. Consequently the unique character of tribal land rights, which include their abiding attachment to the land, community elements in its management and their customary rights over land based resources are all at variance with the records churned out in land surveys and settlement operations.

9. There are serious infirmities and flaws in the output of survey and settlement operations. The uncertainty, harassment and expense caused by the absence of clear record of rights in respect of land held by the tribal people and their communities, are responsible for ever increasing tension among members of the Scheduled Tribes. Absence of a clear record of such rights to land held by tribals and their communities has also contributed to misadministration of tribal lands. Therefore, the Expert Group recommends that (he highest priority should be accorded to the preparation and updating of Land records in Tribal areas with active participation of Tribal communities.

10. In preparation and updating of land records in tribal areas, (he following measures should be taken:

a) Tribal community Organizations/Panchayats/Gram Sabhas should all be actively and formally associated with the process of updating of land records in tribal areas so that correct entries can be made in the record of rights.

b) Before survey/resurvey and settlement operations are taken up in any tribal area, adequate number of tribal youth shall be trained in methods of updating of land records and inducted into the organization for carrying out this work.

c) Non-tribal personnel in the survey and settlement organization involved in updating of land records in tribal areas must be trained in the system of tribal land management, customary laws of various communities and statutory measures for their protection before being so deployed.

d) The Collector/Deputy Commissioner of the Districts in the fifth schedule areas should be empowered to take up correction of land records, cither of their own motion or on representation received, even after the expiry of the period of limitation for sue correction, if it is found that the record of rights does not reflect the correct reality i1 respect of land belonging to persons of Scheduled Tribes.

(ii) The Conduct of 'Enjoyment Survey'

11. The Expert Group recommends that "enjoyment survey" to establish the rights of the tribal people to their land be prosecuted with utmost urgency. It further recommends that the following specific elements be made integral parts of the process for conducting such an "enjoyment survey" in all tribal areas:

a) The entire process of implementing land alienation laws including assignment of government lands should be done under the supervision of a district level committee, headed by the District Collector, consisting of representatives of NGOs, community-based organizations and political parties.

b) A Village Level Committee should be constituted for each village in the scheduled area under the Chairmanship of concerned Gram Panchayat and consisting of at least three members from the Scheduled Tribes, at least one scheduled caste person, at least one backward caste person and a representative each of local NGO or community-based-organization. At least one member of each Committee should be a woman.

c) The data on precise composition of Village Level Committees must be available with the District Collector.

d) The decisions taken by the District level committee as well as the Village Level Committee should reflect In the form of resolutions reduced to writing in the minutes book to be maintained by the District Collector in case of the District level committee and office of the Gram Panchayat in case of Village Level Committees.

e) Officials, non-officials and non-government organizations engaged in the scheduled areas for verification of titles and possession of lands should follow a campaign approach as detailed here, to address the issue of tribal land alienation.

f) The District Level Committees should ensure that village maps are prepared for each village by showing in different colours, different kinds of lands: lands belonging to tribals, non tribals, tribal lands under occupation of non-tribals, Government lands assigned to tribals, Government lands assigned to non-tribals, Government lands immediately available for assignment on the basis of revenue records along with a statement containing full particulars of land, i.e. Khala/holding/plot number, pattedar, possessor, etc.

g) Prior dialogue with the tribals and non-tribal residents of habitations must be undertaken by holding special 'Gram Sabha' meetings in each habitation to explain to the people the purpose and strategy of the proposed verification, viz, that it would help in identifying the possessor and in setting the law into motion for restoration of rights to land to their rightful owners.

h) A gap of two to four weeks must be maintained between the date of Gram Sabha and the actual date of conducting 'enjoyment survey'.

i) The revenue machinery should enable collection, by all concerned, including tribal representatives, of relevant documents and information, including villa map(s), record of rights of the last survey, khatian, list of judgments passed by various courts in cases involving tribal lands, details of cases pending, reasons for pendency of cases and the like. The information already available with the NGOs on the status of cases may also be compiled.

j) The Tehsildar should be directed to make available freely these records for inspection either by rival claimants or by representatives of NGO/CBO for about one week.

k) The schedule of 'enjoyment survey' should be widely announced in local newspapers, apart from announcement by beat of drum. The schedule should clearly spell out (lie following:

Date on which the village map with survey numbers and the land owner data as above, shall be made available in the village by way of special 'Gram Sabha' meetings

Date or dates for inspection of records in the Tehsil office, time to receive objections. Claims from either side shall be scrutinized by the Village Level Committee prior to the date of "enjoyment survey".

The date of actual physical 'enjoyment survey', i.e. plot-to-plot physical verification of land with reference to revenue records to be done by concerned Government officials.

The Village Level Committee shall take up the responsibility of serving notice on the rival claimants.

Time limit for claiming cases before concerned empowered Court or for institution of suo-moto cases.

12. Depending upon the work to be undertaken village-wise, the District Level Committee shall ensure that necessary staff from revenue and survey organizations arc requisitioned. Each team for 'enjoyment survey' will be headed by a revenue officer not below the rank of a Tahsildar. Prior training of team leaders should be organized in order to make the survey process effective. During the 'enjoyment survey', the non-tribals who are found to be in possession of land/property in scheduled areas shall be called upon to substantiate their claims to hold the land/property under reference.

13. Even where a case is pending before any judicial forum during the 'enjoyment survey', the team conducting the 'survey' must complete the work of physical verification with reference to the records maintained by the revenue machinery and the title held by the non-tribals. Wherever considered necessary the concerned parties will be given sufficient opportunity to prove their title to the land/property in question.

14. After completion of the verification work, the Village Level Committee shall issue a joint statement indicating the outcome of such verification work, clearly spelling out the final list of landholders with all the details of lands held.

15. Five sets of the records should be prepared after the completion of the verification work and they should be kept in the offices of Gram Panchayat, Tahsil office, the Project Director (ITDA)/District Tribal Welfare Officer, the District Collector and (he Commissioner/ Director (Tribal Welfare).

16. Given the fact that statutory survey and settlement proceedings are long drawn out, they are purely in official hands and require demystification, the Expert Group feels that 'enjoyment survey' proposed in this Report will help in not only ascertaining the current status of tribal land with regard to title and possession but also on setting the ball rolling for opening/re-opening of cases under the law for prevention of tribal land alienation and for restoration of alienated land to the people belonging to Scheduled Tribes.

(iii) Recording of Land Rights

17. The Expert Group was astonished that even in areas where survey and settlement operations have been carried out, the maintenance of land records, record of mutations and registers of cultivation / enjoyment arc hopelessly neglected. During its visits to several states the Expert Group was surprised at the neglect of basic revenue functions, such as maintenance of land records, providing clear-cut information to the tribal people and their communities regarding land records, land use maps and enjoyment details. Nowhere did the Expert Group find correct record of actual cultivators of (he land, as distinguished from the recorded owner entered in annual land revenue icoords. The hiatus between the recorded ownership of land and the actual cultivator of the land makes il almost impossible to identify the extent of alienation and initiate legal processes for its restoration. The Expert Group is convinced that a transparent, accountable and error-free record of land rights at the village level with promotion of literacy/awareness relating to these records and rights among the tribal people will only improve matters in the long run. The Expert Group, therefore, recommends that:

a) In-depth scrutiny of methods of preparation, maintenance and updating of land records should be undertaken to identify cases where lands cultivated by tribal individuals, or under use of tribal communities, particularly those on the higher slopes, have been wrongly recorded in the name of government or any other agency on account of faulty techniques of cadastral survey, erroneous perceptions of survey and settlement personnel and inadequate comprehension among them about tribal land management system and customary laws.

b) Immediate measures should be taken to correct entries in land records in such cases by correctly recording various rights and interests of tribal people, both individual and communal.

c) Survey and Settlement techniques be modified with a view to prevent such errors being committed in future, if necessary through suitable amendments of the law.

d) For carrying out quick land surveys and identifying the tribal holdings and recording their rights and enjoyments in quick time, several hassle free technologies have emerged which are being sponsored and advocated by Survey of India, ISRO, Technological Universities, Private Companies specializing electronic workstation survey methods and GIS. These methods and techniques must be used for quick survey, rectification of errors and generation of field measurement books and maps.

18. The Expert Group has come to the conclusion that computerization of land records in a citizen-friendly manner is a crying need of the hour, which would substantially contribute to accelerating recording of land rights in the scheduled areas. The Expert Group, therefore, strongly urges that computerization of land records in a citizen-friendly manner may be undertaken in all the States having fifth schedule areas. The Expert Group has noted with satisfaction that computerization of land records has made headway in several states especially Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and the Bhoomi System in Karnataka has succeeded in improving the inefficient, non transparent and discretionary processes by installing its own system where in all record of right to tenancy and cultivation have been computerized. Wide publicity to these records and on the spot supply of records to those needing them have evoked appreciation. The Expert Group recommends that updated and upgraded land records and record of rights of tenants and cultivators be made available to all Gram Panchayats, Village Communities, NGOs and others and the processes of the computerization of these records which has yielded such good results in Karnataka be initiated urgently throughout the fifth Scheduled Areas.

(iv) Security of Land Rights

19. In order to secure recognition for the inherent rights of Scheduled Tribes to their land it would be necessary that in addition to individual land rights, the rights of the communities are also identified and recorded. For the purpose of recording such community rights, members of Scheduled Tribes living together in a traditional geographic habitation should be deemed as constituting a 'tribal community'. Such tribal community should be recognized as a "Person" under the law, so that common lands and land-based resources in use of the community or under its control, are so recorded in the record of rights.

0. The entire land traditionally used for shifting cultivation on rotational basis shall be recorded in (he name of the tribal community and individuals who cultivate particular patches of land on rotational basis rather than being recorded in the name of Government or any other agency. Appropriate guidelines must be issued by the state Governments for recording rights and interests in respect of such lands covered by shifting cultivation to the settlement authorities.