Bring digital data of all types of lands, including forests, under single geospatial platform for effective monitoring: Karnataka High Court

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to create a central integrated geospatial platform combining data of all types of lands, including Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) or Bhu-Aadhaar and digitised data of forests by geo-tagging of all forest lands along with their demarcated boundaries as per historical gazette notifications.

Also, the court directed for setting up an inter-departmental land dispute resolution cell (IDLDRC), directly working under the supervision of the Chief Secretary and comprising representatives from departments of revenue, forest, urban planning authorities, to mediate and issue binding inter-departmental orders on the issue of conflicting land records.

Automatic conflict alerts

The central platform should have an automated system to streamline all land-related applications to ensure that no land-related action is taken without the mandatory, real-time verification against the unified land database. For example, the court said, the Deputy Commissioners or planning authorities, would have to be legally barred from processing any land conversion or layout sanction applications until the automated system performs a check against the integrated forest map.

If a parcel of land falls within a forest boundary, the system must automatically reject the application and generate a “conflict alert” for all the departments concerned, and the office of the sub-registrars should get alert to prevent registration of any sale deed of such land.

The online portal for building plan approvals would also be required to be integrated with this system to automatically verify that the land is legally converted and free from disputes, the court said.

Devanahalli land

Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the series of directions while dealing with a dispute over certain lands situated in Devanahalli taluk of Bengaluru as the Forest Department has issued notice Mohammed Shoaib and other land owners, who have already formed layouts by securing statuary approvals from the Bangalore International Airport Planning Authority. These lands had changed several private individuals’ hands between 1930s and 1970s.

The court said that State Forest Department has to prepare maps of forests using high-resolution satellite imagery from agencies like the Forest Survey of India and the Indian Space Research Organisation and integrate the maps with ULPIN.

Mobile app for public

Using data from this central platform, a portal and a mobile app should be created for public to get a comprehensive colour-coded reports on land-use classification, ownership history (mutation records), details of litigation, encumbrances, warning if land falls in the boundary of forest or reserved for public purposes, by entering survey numbers or other identifiable details.

“This transparency mechanism of giving access to public would serve as a powerful deterrent to fraud, enabling citizens to perform their own due diligence and effectively acting as a “fraud alert” for every future buyer,” the court said.

The court directed the government to set up a high-level committee (HLC), comprising officers from Chief Secretary’s office, to implement these directions in a phased manner spread over two years.