'State Acting Autocratically,' Patna High Court Deprecates Cancelling of Longstanding Land Records In Summary Proceedings

The Patna High Court recently deprecated the State's 'autocratical' actions wherein it cancelled longstanding land records by way of summary proceedings.

A single judge bench of Justice Sourendra Pandey held that the authorities had exceeded their jurisdiction and acted beyond the same.

An aggrieved party approached the High Court against the State of Bihar decision to stop issuing rent receipts in his favour. Court was told that earlier the two brothers of the petitioner had approached the Court and it had very categorically held that the land had a longstanding jamabandi and which was permitted by the State to continue for so long, and thereafter, in the said case, a notice under Section 3(H) was issued, which was set aside and the Court had categorically held that the only option which was with the State of Bihar was to approach a Civil Court of competent jurisdiction to decide the issue.

Court was further told that overreaching the previous order passed by the high Court and to bypass the said observations made therein, the State of Bihar designed a separate approach and stopped issuing rent receipts in favour of the petitioner, who happens to be the brother of the earlier two petitioners. It was further submitted that the respondent authorities did not stop there and in fact, during the pendency of the writ application, the Circle Officer had the audacity to recommend for cancellation of jamabandi of the petitioner and the Additional Collector had gone ahead and has initiated a Cancellation Case No.39 of 2023.

"...this Court finds that this is yet another case that the State has acted in a very autocratical manner, where they have shown defiance not only to the orders of this Court but have also bypassed the various judicial pronouncements where it has been very categorically held that a longstanding jamabandi cannot be cancelled in summary proceedings and the only option the State has is to file a civil suit," Justice Pandey observed.

High court accordingly has held that the action taken by the Circle Officer, Khaira, Jamui, is to be deprecated and the initiation of the Cancellation Case No.39 of 2023 is held to be bad.

"The Circle Officer, Khair, Jamui, is directed to start issuing rent receipts in favour of the petitioner with immediate effect.... if the State is adamant about taking any action against the petitioner the only remedy they have is to go before a competent Civil Court and any action taken apart from the same would be treated as contemptuous..." the high court has ordered.

Case Title: Krishna Kumar Goenka vs State of Bihar

Bench: Justice Sourendra Pandey

Judgment Date: June 18, 2026