Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda | Photo credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J.
Karnataka, which has shown the way to reduce the backlog of revenue cases, has now embarked on an initiative to streamline the functioning of the Revenue Courts. It has taken measures to address the problem of some financial courts abusing their quasi-judicial powers to promote irregularities by dealing with cases outside their jurisdiction.
The government has introduced a 15-point online screening measure to prevent tax courts from overstepping their jurisdiction.
Involvement of intermediaries
“The audit of the backlog by the government has shown that some assistant commissioner courts have admitted cases outside their jurisdiction by usurping the jurisdiction of civil courts to rectify irregularities, possibly due to the involvement of middlemen,” Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told The Hindu.
“When we analyzed the older (long-pending) cases, we found that a large part of them were not actually in the domain of the tax courts at all. Our officials admitted these cases in collusion with intermediaries or petitioners,” the minister said.
In some cases the claimants had the right to approach the civil courts and in some others there was no way the revenue courts could admit them because they were illegal measures, he noted.
“For example, if a person has illegally sold another person’s property, it will have to be rejected during the mutation process (the process of updating the land records to reflect the change in ownership). However, old cases have shown that some Assistant Commissioners’ Revenue Courts would recognize the cases and direct the relevant authorities to proceed with the mutation as per the sale deed without going to the merits,” he explained.
Govt. land the victim
He said about 10,000 acres of government land was lost when they issued orders in favor of those encroaching on government land. “This was one of the reasons for the spread of revenue distribution as orders were issued to issue khat without a survey outline,” he said.
Stating that many of these courts were run “like kangaroo courts”, he said there was gross abuse of quasi-judicial powers. The minister said that to ensure fairness, the finance ministry has introduced an online checklist system to examine cases at the admission stage itself.
How it works
The check, which is mandatory for AC courts, will have a 15-point checklist for which ACs will have to tick ‘yes’ or ‘no’ online with a digital signature for verification. Even a single “no” will reject the case for admission. Each of these questions is designed to confirm that the case is legally within the jurisdiction of the Finance Court.
Apart from this, the government is also experimenting with live revenue courts. “We have done it on a pilot basis in Bengaluru South ACs court. The feedback is positive,” he said.
Pending now
On the revenue-related case, Mr. Gowda said the current dispensation has reduced the backlog of cases in tahsildar courts from 10,774 in May 2023 to the current 488. Similarly, pending cases in AC courts have reduced from 73,624 in May 2023 to the current 11,605.
While tahsildar courts are supposed to dispose of cases within three months, AC courts are supposed to dispose of them within six months. As many as 30 special ACs have been appointed to dispose of older cases, he noted.
Published – 11 Feb 2026 21:21 IST