The administration of land in Rajasthan rests on a carefully graded hierarchy of officers, each created and clothed with power by a numbered provision of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956. Chapter II establishes the Board of Revenue as the apex revenue court; Chapter III creates the territorial divisions and the line of executive and quasi-judicial officers — Commissioner, Collector, Sub-Divisional Officer, Tehsildar and Naib-Tehsildar — together with the settlement and land-records establishment. Understanding who appoints these officers, to whom they are subordinate, what powers they exercise, and where those powers stop is the foundation of revenue practice. This note maps that structure section by section, with the leading authorities, and connects it to the cognate machinery you will meet in mutation and the record of rights. For the wider statutory scheme see the subject hub.
The Board of Revenue — apex of the pyramid
Section 4 establishes for the State of Rajasthan a Board of Revenue consisting of a Chairman and not less than three and not more than fifteen members, all appointments being notified in the Official Gazette. By Section 5 the members hold office during the pleasure of the Governor, and Section 6 fixes the headquarters of the Board at Ajmer, though it may sit anywhere within its jurisdiction under the State Government's orders. The "pleasure" tenure of Section 5 mirrors the constitutional doctrine examined in Union of India v. Col. J.N. Sinha (AIR 1971 SC 40), where the Supreme Court held that a power exercisable at pleasure is still subject to the law made under it and must be read with the relevant service rules.
Section 8 declares the Board to be the highest revenue court of appeal, revision and reference in Rajasthan; but its proviso carves out a crucial limit — wherever there is doubt or dispute about whether a matter falls to a civil or a revenue court, the decision of the High Court is final and binding on all courts, including the Board. Section 7 provides the Board's ministerial establishment (a Registrar and others), Section 14 obliges it to maintain registers, and Sections 11 to 13 govern reference to a Bench, reference of questions of law to the High Court, and decision where members differ.
Superintendence and how the Board's jurisdiction is exercised
Section 9 is the linchpin of the hierarchy: subject to the other provisions of the Act, the general superintendence and control over all revenue courts and over all revenue officers is vested in the Board, and every such court and officer is subordinate to it. This is the statutory source of the Board's administrative oversight, distinct from its appellate and revisional jurisdiction.
Section 10 prescribes how that jurisdiction is exercised — by the Chairman or any member sitting singly, or by a Bench of two or more members, with a party aggrieved by a single member's decision having a right of special appeal to a Bench within one month where the deciding member certifies the case as fit for appeal. The Chairman may distribute the business of the Board and make territorial divisions of its jurisdiction. The reach of this apex authority, and its limits, was illustrated in Board of Revenue for Rajasthan, Ajmer v. Rao Bal Deo Singh (AIR 1968 SC 898), where the Supreme Court held that neither the Land Records Officer nor any other revenue court under this Act had jurisdiction to decide whether property claimed by a jagirdar was khudkasht — that question being reserved to the Jagir Commissioner under the special law — applying the maxim that a special enactment prevails over a later general one.
Territorial divisions — the canvas on which officers operate
An officer's power is meaningless without a territory, and Section 15 supplies it. For revenue and general administration the whole State is divided into divisions and districts as the State Government deems fit; every division is a district or a group of districts; a district may be split into sub-divisions, each comprising one or more tehsils; and a tehsil may be sub-divided into sub-tehsils. The State Government defines the limits of each unit and notifies them in the Official Gazette, and units existing at the commencement of the Act continue as if constituted under it. Section 16 empowers the State Government, by notification, to create, abolish or alter divisions, districts, sub-divisions, tehsils, sub-tehsils and villages, and to alter their limits. These territorial units are the same canvas on which survey and settlement operations are later conducted.
The classes of revenue officers and their appointment
Sections 17 to 20 create the officers. Section 17 requires the State Government to appoint in each division a Commissioner and permits as many Additional Commissioners as are necessary. Section 18 provides for a Settlement Commissioner for the whole State and Additional Settlement Commissioners as needed; Section 19 for a Director of Land Records and as many Additional and Assistant Directors as required. Section 20 is the workhorse provision for the field officers. It mandates the appointment of a Collector in each district — who is also the Land Records Officer for that district — and a Tehsildar in each tehsil; it permits the appointment of an Additional Land Records Officer, a Settlement Officer, Assistant Collectors and Naib-Tehsildars; it mandates an Assistant Collector in charge of each sub-division and a Tehsildar or Naib-Tehsildar in charge of sub-tehsils; and it permits Additional Collectors and Additional Tehsildars.
Section 20-A, inserted in 1962, creates the Revenue Appellate Authority — at least three officers appointed to receive, hear and dispose of appeals, revisions and references in revenue judicial cases, sitting at places directed by the State Government. Section 21 allows appointments under Sections 17, 18, 19 and 20 to be made ex-officio, and Section 22 requires all appointments under Sections 17 to 21 to be notified in the Official Gazette — with the sole exception that the appointment of Naib-Tehsildars need not be notified.
Control and subordination — who answers to whom
Section 23 draws the central distinction in revenue administration. The control of all non-judicial matters connected with revenue, other than settlement, is vested in the State Government, while the control of all judicial matters and of all matters connected with settlement is vested in the Board. A "judicial matter" is defined as a proceeding in which a revenue court or officer must determine the rights and liabilities of parties, and the proceedings, orders, appeals, revisions and references listed in the First Schedule are deemed judicial matters. This bifurcation explains why the same officer may be answerable to the executive on a non-judicial question and to the Board on a judicial one.
Section 24 then lays down the chains of subordination, subject to Sections 9 and 23. Within a division, all Additional Commissioners, Collectors, Additional Collectors, Sub-Divisional Officers, Assistant Collectors, Tehsildars, Additional Tehsildars and Naib-Tehsildars are subordinate to the Commissioner; within a district, all below the Collector are subordinate to him; within a sub-division, to the Sub-Divisional Officer; within a tehsil, to the Tehsildar. Parallel chains run through the settlement establishment (subordination to the Settlement Commissioner and Settlement Officer) and the land-records establishment (subordination to the Director of Land Records and the Land Records Officer). Officers specially appointed for a local area under Chapter VII fall into their own line of subordination.
Powers and duties of courts and officers
Section 25 confers the core jurisdiction. A Commissioner, Collector, Sub-Divisional Officer or Tehsildar exercises, within his division, district, sub-division or tehsil respectively, all the powers and duties conferred by this Act, the Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955, or any other law in force. The Settlement Commissioner is in charge of all settlement matters throughout the State; the Director of Land Records is in charge of survey and the preparation, revision and maintenance of land records; a Land Records Officer or a Settlement Officer exercises power within his appointed area. Sub-section (6) is important in practice: an Additional Commissioner, Additional Settlement Commissioner, Additional or Assistant Director, Additional Collector or Additional Tehsildar exercises, in cases the State Government directs, the powers of his principal and is for those purposes deemed to be that principal. Assistant Collectors and Naib-Tehsildars exercise such powers as are conferred on them or delegated by general or special order under sub-section (7). These powers feed directly into the day-to-day work of maintaining the record of rights.
Additional and inherent powers — Sections 26 and 27
Section 26 lets the State Government, by notification, augment an officer's powers by conferring on him the powers of a higher office — on a Naib-Tehsildar the powers of a Tehsildar; on a Tehsildar those of an Assistant Collector; on an Assistant Collector those of a Sub-Divisional Officer, Land Records Officer, Settlement Officer or Collector; on a Collector those of a Settlement Officer; and so up the chain to the Commissioner and Settlement Commissioner. Such powers are exercised in the areas and over the cases the State Government directs (sub-section 2), and the Government may empower persons by name or classes of officers by their official designations (sub-section 3). Sub-section (4) preserves powers conferred by name when the officer is transferred to an equivalent post elsewhere, unless the Government directs otherwise.
Section 27 supplies inherent powers that operate automatically, without any notification. A Collector has all the powers of a Sub-Divisional Officer, Assistant Collector and Tehsildar; a Sub-Divisional Officer those of an Assistant Collector and Tehsildar; an Assistant Collector those of a Tehsildar and Naib-Tehsildar; a Tehsildar those of a Naib-Tehsildar; a Land Records Officer or Settlement Officer those of a Tehsildar, Naib-Tehsildar or officer under Chapter VII or VIII; and a Revenue Appellate Authority has all the powers of a Collector, Sub-Divisional Officer, Assistant Collector and Tehsildar. The distinction matters: Section 26 powers must be conferred and notified, whereas Section 27 powers vest by force of the office itself.
Succession to vacancies and temporary absence
The Act ensures continuity of administration. Section 28 provides that where the office of a Commissioner, Collector, Sub-Divisional Officer or Tehsildar becomes permanently vacant and an officer succeeds temporarily to the chief executive administration of the unit, that officer exercises, pending the State Government's orders, all the powers and duties of the substantive office. Section 29 deals with temporary absence: another officer of equal grade at the headquarters — or, failing that, a superior or even an inferior grade officer — assumes charge of the absentee's office without relinquishing his own duties, until the office is duly assumed by another, and where no such officer is available the chief ministerial official may adjourn matters. These provisions guarantee that no revenue seat is left without a competent incumbent.
Place of holding court, entry on land and attendance of persons
Several procedural powers attach to revenue officers. Section 51 permits every officer appointed under Chapter III to hold court and make inquiry at any place within his territorial limits, and forbids hearing outside those limits except for reasons recorded in writing. Section 52 empowers all revenue and village officers, when authorised, to enter upon and survey land, demarcate boundaries and do other acts connected with their duties — subject to the safeguard that no person may enter a building, enclosed courtyard or garden attached to a dwelling house without the occupier's consent or at least twenty-four hours' notice, and with due regard to the occupier's social and religious sentiments.
Section 57 gives every revenue court or officer the power, subject to Sections 132 and 133 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, to summon any person whose attendance is necessary as a party or witness or to produce documents; persons summoned are bound to attend and state the truth, and a defaulter may be arrested under a bailable warrant. Sections 58 to 62 regulate the form and service of summons, notices and proclamations, and Section 62 saves a notice or proclamation from being void for a mere error in name or description unless substantial injustice has resulted. Section 66 empowers a revenue court or officer to give and apportion costs, executable as a money decree.
Transfer, withdrawal and consolidation of cases
Two distinct powers govern the movement of cases. Section 53 allows the State Government, the Director of Land Records or a Commissioner to transfer non-judicial cases not concerned with settlement, and the Board, the Settlement Commissioner or the Director of Land Records to transfer judicial or settlement cases, from any subordinate court or officer to another competent court or officer. Section 54 confers the parallel power of making over and withdrawing: a Commissioner, Collector, Sub-Divisional Officer, Tehsildar, Land Records Officer or Settlement Officer may make over a case from his own file to a competent subordinate, may withdraw a case from a subordinate and deal with it himself, or refer it to another competent officer — with the proviso that even where a report is submitted to a superior for final order, the parties must be given an opportunity to be heard before the final order. Section 55 allows consolidation, in the common superior court, of cases involving substantially the same question and based on the same cause of action. Section 68 empowers a wide range of officers to refer disputes to arbitration with the parties' consent.
Appellate, revisional and review powers
The officers' powers culminate in a tiered corrective jurisdiction. Section 75 provides for first appeals — to the Collector from a Tehsildar's original order in non-settlement, non-land-records matters; to the Revenue Appellate Authority from orders of an Assistant Collector, Sub-Divisional Officer or Collector; to the Settlement Commissioner and Director of Land Records in settlement and land-records matters; and to the Board from original orders of the Commissioner, Revenue Appellate Authority or Settlement Commissioner. Section 76 governs second appeals, Section 77 bars appeals in certain cases (including from interim orders), and Section 78 prescribes limitation periods of thirty, sixty and ninety days respectively. Section 80 sets out the appellate authority's powers to confirm, vary, reverse or remand, and Section 81 the power to stay execution.
Sections 82 to 84 contain the revisional jurisdiction. The Settlement Commissioner, Director of Land Records or a Collector may call for records under Section 82 and, finding illegality, refer the case to the Board (if judicial or settlement) or the State Government (if non-judicial); Section 83 gives the State Government revisional power over non-judicial proceedings; and Section 84 empowers the Board to revise judicial or settlement orders where the subordinate exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it, failed to exercise jurisdiction so vested, or acted illegally or with material irregularity — language deliberately tracking Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. Section 86 confers the power of review on the Board and other revenue courts on the grounds in Order XLVII Rule 1 CPC, subject to notice and a ninety-day limitation. The proviso to Section 8 and the principles in Dhulabhai v. State of Madhya Pradesh (AIR 1969 SC 78) remind the practitioner that this self-contained hierarchy ordinarily ousts the civil court, but never where the Act's own provisions or the fundamental principles of judicial procedure are violated.
Frequently asked questions
Who constitutes the Board of Revenue and where does it sit?
Under Section 4, the Board consists of a Chairman and not less than three and not more than fifteen members, whose appointments are notified in the Official Gazette. By Section 5 they hold office during the pleasure of the Governor, and Section 6 fixes the headquarters at Ajmer, though the Board may sit anywhere within its jurisdiction under the State Government's orders.
What is the difference between Section 26 and Section 27 powers?
Section 26 powers are additional powers that the State Government must confer by notification, allowing a lower officer to exercise the powers of a higher one. Section 27 powers are inherent — they vest automatically by virtue of the office, so that, for example, a Collector always has the powers of a Sub-Divisional Officer, Assistant Collector and Tehsildar without any notification.
Can a revenue officer transfer or withdraw a case from a subordinate?
Yes. Section 54 lets a Commissioner, Collector, Sub-Divisional Officer, Tehsildar, Land Records Officer or Settlement Officer make over a case to a competent subordinate, withdraw a case and decide it himself, or refer it to another competent officer. A separate power of transfer between courts lies with the Government, Board, Settlement Commissioner, Director of Land Records and Commissioner under Section 53.
Does the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act bar the jurisdiction of civil courts?
Largely yes, because the Act provides a self-contained hierarchy of revenue courts. The proviso to Section 8, however, makes the High Court's decision final where there is a dispute over civil-versus-revenue jurisdiction. The Supreme Court's principles in Dhulabhai v. State of Madhya Pradesh (AIR 1969 SC 78) confirm that even a statutory bar does not extend to cases where the Act's provisions or fundamental principles of judicial procedure have been ignored.
What is the Board's revisional power under Section 84?
Under Section 84 the Board may call for the record of a judicial or settlement case in which no appeal lies to it, and revise the order where the subordinate court or officer exercised a jurisdiction not vested in it, failed to exercise jurisdiction so vested, or acted illegally or with material irregularity. This language deliberately mirrors Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
Are there limits on a revenue officer's power to enter and survey land?
Yes. Section 52 lets authorised revenue and village officers enter upon and survey land and demarcate boundaries, but no one may enter a building, enclosed courtyard or garden attached to a dwelling house without the occupier's consent or at least twenty-four hours' notice, and due regard must be paid to the occupier's social and religious sentiments.