Short History of Revenue Tribunal

Sec. 296(2) of the Government of India Act, 1935, provided that if in any Province, no Provision is made to entertain appeals or revision applications against the decisions in Revenue Cases, the Governor shall in the first instance constitute a Tribunal for that purpose. The members of the Federal and the Provincial Legislatures were debarred from being Members of the Tribunal, and power was given to the Provincial Legislature to pass a law to constitute such Tribunal. Accordingly, on the coming into force of the Government of India Act, i.e. on 1st April 1937, the Governor of Bombay by G.N.R.D. No. 4877/33, of that date, constituted a Tribunal which consisted of three Commissioners of three Divisions, (viz., Northern, Central and Southern) and the Commissioner, to exercise appellate and revisional jurisdiction in revenue cases. Sec. 296 of the Government of India Act, however, did not define what a revenue case was. The Tribunal thus set up continued to decide revenue cases until the Bombay Revenue Tribunal Act, 1939, was passed by the Bombay Legislature. Section 3 of the said Act empowered Government to constitute a Tribunal, but the number, and qualifications of the Members of the Tribunal were left to be determined by rules to be made by Government under the said Act. Section 4 provided that the Tribunal was to exercise such jurisdiction to entertain appeals and revise decisions in revenue cases as was vested in Government immediately before the 1st April, 1937 under any law for the time being in force. Sub-section (2) of that section empowered the Tribunal to exercise jurisdiction under several Acts which were mentioned in the Schedule to the Act. Accordingly, rules were made for the constitution of the Tribunal. The said rules provided that the President shall be a person who is or has been a judge of High Court, or the Principle judge of the City Civil Court, Bombay, and the other Members may be officials and non-officials who were to be appointed by the state Government.

The Bombay Revenue Tribunal Act, 1939 continued to be in force until 31st May 1958. But the jurisdiction of under various Land Tenure Abolition Acts and also under the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 continued with the Revenue Tribunal. As stated before the Tribunal continued to work under the Act decided by circulation of notes and in few cases only where the Members of the Tribunal considered that the parties should be represented by pleaders and heard, were so heard. But since 1955 all cases are heard in open court and the parties are allowed to be represented by pleaders.

On 1st November 1956, when certain areas such as that of Saurashtra, Vidharbha, Marathwada were integrated into the State of Bombay, the jurisdiction of the Tribunal was extended to the jurisdiction exercised by Revenue Tribunals and Boards of Revenue in those areas under various Acts, which were in force in the said areas, such as Saurashtra Land Reforms Act, Saurashtra Barkhali Abolition Act, C.P. Land Revenue Act, C.P. Taluqdars and Proprietary Abolition Act, Hyderabad Board of Revenue Regulations, Hyderabad Land Revenue Act, and various other Acts. The Commissioners whose offices were abolished by the Commissioner’s Abolition Act, 1950,were revived and the Commissioners of Divisions Act, 1957, came into force on 3rd March 1958. By that Act the cases which came either by way of appeal or revisions directly from the decision of the Collector to the Bombay Revenue Tribunal were transferred to the Commissioner. The Bombay Revenue Tribunal Act, 1957, which came into force on 1st June 1958, repealed the Act, of 1939 and the important distinction which was made in the Act of 1957 was that the vague and indefinite term which was used in the Act of 1939, namely, “revenue cases” was done away with, as by that time the Constitution of India had come into force and the Constitution did not repeat the provisions of sec. 296 of the Government of India act, 1935. It is true that after the Constitution came into force there was no legal obligation either on Government or the State Legislature to constitute a Tribunal. But in view of the fact that the Tribunal had continued to exercise certain jurisdiction in revenue matters, the Govt. has thought it advisable to continue the said institute under the Act of 1957. The important difference which was made by the Act of 1957 was that the jurisdiction of the Tribunal was restricted or limited to certain specified provisions of various acts which are set out in the schedule to the Act. The ambiguous provision of uncertain import, namely, “revenue cases” which had occurred in the Act of 1939 was done away with. Under the Act of 1939, the word “revenue cases” had led to considerable difficulty and it was understood in the Vidarbha region in a sense different from that in which it was understood and interpreted in the Bombay Presidency proper (and Saurashtra). In order to remove that difficulty the jurisdiction of the Tribunal was restricted to certain specified provisions mentioned in the schedule to the Act of 1957. Additional jurisdiction was given by the Bombay Tenancy and Agriculture Lands Act, 1948, and by various Land Tenure Abolition Acts. It, therefore, appears that although the Bombay Revenue Tribunal was started with the object of providing appeal or revision against Revenue cases, it was extended so far as this State is concerned to all tenancy matters and so also to all Land Tenure Abolition matters. The decision of the Tribunal in appeal or in appeal or in revision tenancy as well as the Land Tenure Abolition matters were given finality and made its decisions or orders executable as decrees of the Civil Court. The only judicial control which exists over the decisions of the Tribunal under the Tenancy act as well as the Land Tenure Abolition Acts is by the High Court in writ jurisdiction under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India or by the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution. Otherwise the decisions of the Tribunal under those Acts have finality. So far as the decisions under the Land Revenue Code are concerned they have that much finality as those decisions or orders would have if they were passed by the State Government sitting in appeal or revisions against the order of the Collector or the Commissioner. The Boards of Revenue Tribunals in Vidarbha and Marathwada had jurisdiction to hear cases in appeal or revision under various other Acts, such as the Indian Stamp Act and other Acts, and also in disposing cases relating to Revenue Officers. The said jurisdiction is not exercised by the Revenue Tribunal at present.

After Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 came into force, by Chapter XV was added and Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal was constituted under the provisions of said Chapter. However, subsequently, by Maharashtra Act No.XXV of 2002, Chapter XV was replaced by new provisions and the Tribunal was abolished. However, since the abolition of Revenue Tribunal was challenged in the Court, after decision of the Hon’ble High Court, the Legislature was pleased to re-introduce Chapter XV by Maharashtra Act 23 of 2007. So far as procedure is concerned, before abolition of Tribunal in 2002 by Act XXV of 2002, the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal Regulations 1958 governed the procedure followed by the Tribunal. However, after its abolition and re-establishment, new regulations, namely, Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal Regulations, 2013 came into force. Same are published in Special Government Gazette Part 4(C) on 5th February, 2013.

Presently, the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal has its Principal Seat at Mumbai where there are posts of President, Member (Judicial) and Member (Administrative). Tribunal has also Benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Pune and at each Bench there are posts of one Member (Judicial) and one Member (Administrative).