Revenue dept to launch virtual court for convenience of petitioners

The revenue and land reforms department is launching a virtual court system across all revenue courts, ranging from circle officer (CO) to the divisional commissioner level, to enable petitioners in land dispute cases to attend hearings virtually, removing the requirement for mandatory physical presence, officials said

The revenue and land reforms department is launching a virtual court system across all revenue courts, ranging from circle officer (CO) to the divisional commissioner level, to enable petitioners in land dispute cases to attend hearings virtually, removing the requirement for mandatory physical presence, officials said.

Officials confirmed that the system was scheduled to launch in mid-September, with all necessary software upgrades now complete.

This initiative marks one of the first such implementations in Bihar and ranks among the most modern systems for disposing of land-related cases nationwide. It offers an end-to-end online facility for matters pending in CO and other revenue courts, covering the entire process from filing petitions to appearing virtually at hearings.

These proceedings primarily address disputes involving mutation, Jamabandi (records of rights), and other related issues. Under the present system, the filing petitions and other facilities are available online but petitioners have to appear before the designated court during the hearing physically.

Confirming the move, secretary of revenue department Jai Singh said the system would help large number of people having land-related issues to appear virtually during scheduled hearings be it at CO court, DCLR , ADMs, DMs or court of divisional commissioner.

“There are all safeguards to ensure that genuine petitioners attend the hearings and there isn’t fraud or any other irregularities in it. The entire process would be recorded and petitioners would be given a link on the date of their scheduled hearing from where they can join in the studio and admissions would be made after checking their credentials by administrators online,” the secretary said.

Meanwhile, as part of an ongoing effort to update jamabandis, the official records detailing land and ownership, the revenue department has directed officials to replace the names of deceased landholders with those of their heirs to ensure these records remain accurate and current.

The number of jamabandis in the state stands around 41 million with large number of record of rights still bearing the name of deceased land holders. “We will update the names of jamabandis having names of deceased land holders at the panchayat level with revenue officials tasked with the job,” said the revenue secretary.

The revenue department has also begun unlocking jamabandis previously flagged as suspicious, following ground-level verifications conducted over the past year. Approximately 1 million records had been locked due to concerns involving fictitious names or fraudulent attempts to encroach upon government land.

However, it is now ascertained that there are only 40,000-50,000 jamabandis, which have ben flagged as suspicious whereas in others, people have come forward to submit documents to prove their claim on the land. “We have unlocked big number of jamabandis after verification of land documents while process is going on for verification of others categorised as suspicious,” said Singh.