Agricultural lands
cannot be directly used for residential purpose. They need to be converted for
residential purposes, by paying conversion charges. The Special Deputy
Commissioner is the competent authority to convert the agricultural land into
non-agricultural purpose. Revenue site is a site that is formed on the
agricultural land into non-agricultural purpose. Revenue site is a site that is
formed on the agricultural land without proper approval under the relevant law
i.e., Karnataka Land Reforms Act, Karnataka Land Revenue Rules and also as per
other provisions of law.
No building shall
be constructed on an agricultural land without obtaining conversion and other
approvals from the concerned authorities. Residential site should be formed
only in the residentially converted land, such a land should be in the
residential zone as per the zonal regulations for getting the residential
conversation.
As per zonal
regulation of comprehensive development plan, the green belt area is only for the
agricultural activities. Non converted land continues to be an agricultural
land, and there are various restrictions on sale and purchase of agricultural
land. In Bangalore only Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is the competent
authority to approve the layout and to get this approval the layout; road
width, residential area, civic amenities, other amenities to be fulfilled. The
Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (BMRDA) is the regulating
authority to approve sites on the outskirts of the Bangalore. All around
Bangalore, it is a very common practice for people to buy a piece of
agricultural land, which is more popular as “revenue site”, without knowing the
hassles involved in the buying of such sites. Consequently local agents, aided
by certain landlords also misguide buyers to buy revenue sites.
Middlemen
ride
The middlemen and
the local brokers have perfected their art of cheating the innocent people by
selling the revenue sites.Generally, a nominal sum is paid as a token advance
to the landlord and a general power of attorney is obtained; and then, the
search for the innocent purchasers begins.
The middle men, like double edged razors, hike the price of the land and
at the same time, do not properly settle the accounts with the illiterate and
ignorant land owners.
Then, the said
brokers who consider themselves above law, form layouts on agricultural lands
without sanction, approval, planning, design etc. To increase the saleable area
of the “sites”, they encroach on roads and as a result the roads get narrowed
down. These layouts are formed without civic amenities and facilities, since
there is no intention of providing them. However, the brokers know the art of
marketing. They make colorful brochures with photographs of certain parts of
Bangalore and paint an attractive picture. Some of them download the foreign
photographs of houses from internet for their brochures. Better the
presentation, deeper the deceit, which very few people understand. After the
process, the broker has gained money, and the purchaser has bitter experience.
The said agents in league with brokers will register some imaginary sites at
the sub-registrar’s office using their clout with the sub-registrar.
Ancestral
Property
In the recital of a
sale deed, it is customary to mention how the seller has acquired his title,
interests and rights to the immovable property from origin to the end. In case
of revenue sites, the brokers at the office of various sub-registrars have
devised a very ingenious method to hide this fact. They merely mention in the
recital that the property is the “ancestral property” of the seller. In this
way the property passes on from the GPA holder to the purchaser.
There are several
instances where the land notified for acquisition and the land granted for
schedule caste people have been converted into sites, where the purchaser of
such a site would not get any title of the property. Then the law stipulates
that certain lands, when granted to the schedule castes, will revert to them if
purchased by any one else.
GPA
transaction
Generally the
brokers will take GPA from the landowner for the entire land and register in
favour of the purchaser; most of the revenue sites are registered under the
strength of GPA. Very few people care to check the legality of the GPA executed
by the original vendor. Nobody bothers to find out whether the GPA is
registered or not, whether the executor of the GPA is alive or not. If the
executor of the GPA is not alive the GPA transaction is totally invalid. A joint
GPA executed by two owners becomes invalid if one of them dies.
Form
9 and Form 10
Originally, a
property falling under the village Panchayat area alone has the genuine site
status. Form No.10 is for a house coming under Gramathana village Panchayat
area and Form No.9 is for a vacant site coming under Gramathana village
panchayat area. The middlemen and some of the revenue officials have made bogus
Forms No.9 and 10 and have registered immoveable properties in favor of
innocent purchasers. Earlier, when the Urban Land Ceiling Act was in force,
thousands of revenue sites were registered by merely mentioning in the sale deed the description as one square asbestos sheet house’. This was mentioned just to avoid getting the
relevant clearance under the said Act. After the Urban Land Ceiling Act was
abolished the term ‘one square asbestos sheet house’ was also removed from the
real estate agent’s dictionary’.
It is not legal to
form layouts and sell the sites in the agricultural land/green belt area,, even
after selling all the sites; RTC (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crop
Inspection) will be in name of the original landowners.
The Agent being a
GPA holder will sell the sites, being “ancestral properties” to the innocent
purchaser. The numbers assigned to these sites will never match with the survey
numbers assigned to these sites will never match with the survey numbers
assigned to these lands by the government. The purchaser of the revenue site
doesn’t get the title of the property. What is purchased is an imaginary site
only. If, however, the original owner is good then the purchaser can enjoy the
property, till the government regularizes such revenue sites.
Difficult to get
loans
If the title deeds
are not clear and does not establish marketable title, it is difficult to
obtain bank loans for construction by mortgaging the sites. Generally, these
sites are situated on the city outskirts. There will be no proper roads,
electricity or water supply. There is no scope for immediate development
occupation. After all this, if the prices of the sites appreciate over a period
of several years, the original landowner will appear from nowhere and start
cultivating the area. He will remove all the boundary stones laid by the
broker. The purchaser will then find it difficult to identify his property. In
certain cases the GPA holder sells the same sites to several persons and
collects money from all of them. Consequently, marathon litigation awaits the
purchaser. The laws are so complex that they give rise to multiple interpretations.
To add to his woes,
the Court fees, which are very high, drain his already depleted resources to
forget everything and be done with it.
Only a fraction of
the deceived purchasers feel that the laws are helpful under such
circumstances. It is hoped that people
will exercise utmost care and restraint, when they go about purchasing “revenue
sites”. A little caution in time will
save lots of botheration future.
Instead of
purchasing a 60 x 40 site a purchaser can as well as go for a title within the
city limits or BDA formed sites or BDA approved sites. Moreover, all the sites
formed in and around Bangalore must have BDA or BMRDA approval.
The
buyers, therefore, instead of wasting their hard earned money on revenue sites
and spending sleepless nights, would rather be wise to consult qualified legalexperts before investing their well earned money.
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