The High Court of Karnataka has flagged a serious legal loophole in Kaveri 2.0 software while pointing that this system has no provision to enter decrees by the courts as the software “treats the decrees, be it declaratory, preliminary, final, or compromise, etc., of competent civil courts as if they were extra-statutory or non-existent for mutation purposes”.
Absence of provision in the software to incorporate civil court’s decrees undermines the finality of court decrees and runs counter to the intent of Sections 128 and 135 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, which mandate that revenue records be amended in conformity with judicial declarations, the High Court pointed out.
Without delay
The High Court also directed the State government to take steps within six months to introduce a new workflow, in Kaveri 2.0, titled “Mutation based on civil court decree” for mutation, based on all types of decree of a civil court, to ensure that names of all shares and their respective extent, as determined by the decree, are entered in the column of owners or remarks of the parent RTC without any delay.
Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum issued the directions while allowing a petition filed by Gilbert Vas and his four brothers of Naricombu village in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district.
The petitioners, based on a compromise decree before a civil court, had applied before tahsildar for change of khata of lands as per the decree. However, the tahsildar asked them to produce pre-mutation sketch for changing khata as Kaveri 2.0 software permits change of khata only with the production of the 11E sketch.
Changes needed
The Kaveri 2.0 should have necessary integration with Bhoomi and Mojini-2 software for implementation of decrees and for upload and authentication of civil court decrees; auto-generation of a digital mutation request (J-Slip) to Bhoomi; mapping decree particulars to survey numbers; interface to record proportionate shares in the parent RTC, and provision to attach 11-E sketches when sub-division is sought based on decree, the court said.
This vacuum in the software, the High Court said, is resulting in frequent situations where decree-holders, despite having obtained a binding decree from a competent civil court, were unable to secure corresponding entries in the revenue records like record of rights (RTC) as authorities insist production of other documents like modified sketches of the lands, etc.
Serious consequences
Failure to make entries in the parent RTC based on court’s decrees has a serious legal and administrative consequences and unnecessary creation of third party rights as such vacuum confers an unintended and unlawful advantage upon the party who has lost the litigation or others.
This enables them to create third-party interests or alienate the property under the pretext of existing revenue entries, thereby frustrating the civil court’s decrees, the High Court pointed out.
Lack of provision to enter court’s decrees compels the decree-holders to re-approach the civil court for enforcement, thereby multiplying litigation and burdening the judiciary with avoidable proceedings, Justice Magadum pointed out.
Published – November 24, 2025 08:23 pm IST
