Mutation No. 4471 and the widow's 21 marla
At the revenue office of Tehsil Kot Addu, a widow, Nasreen Bibi, applies for correction of the record of rights. Her husband died fourteen months ago, leaving 8 kanal 8 marla (168 marla) of land recorded in his sole name in khasra 214/3. Three months ago the office attested Mutation No. 4471 in favour of her husband's elder brother, on the strength of a written 'family settlement' signed by four of the deceased's cousins but by neither Nasreen nor her four adult children (two sons, two daughters), all of whom survive the deceased. The brother has since mortgaged 4 kanal of the same plot to a bank and has started levelling the land with a tractor; the current girdawari entry records wheat sown by Nasreen on the rest of the plot. Nasreen's lawyer asks the tehsildar to 'cancel the mutation and transfer the land to the heirs' within seven days, failing which he will 'go to the press'. The naib-tehsildar holds the file, the jama-bandi, and a photocopy of the family settlement, which carries two thumb impressions and no date.
1. Does Mutation No. 4471 give the elder brother title to the land? What may the naib-tehsildar lawfully do on Nasreen's application, and what must she be told?
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Short answer: no. A mutation is a fiscal record entry, not a conveyance.
- A mutation records that a transaction or event (sale, inheritance, gift, decree) has been reported to the revenue agency. It does not itself create, transfer or extinguish title. Title flows from the transaction and its instrument; the mutation entry is at most evidence, presumed correct until rebutted.
- The 'family settlement' did not bind Nasreen or the children. A co-heir's share cannot be extinguished by an agreement to which she was not a party, and an undated photocopy with two thumb impressions proves nothing by itself.
What the officer can do: issue notice to both sides, record Nasreen's statement, verify the pedigree and the death certificate, and, if the attested entry is on the face of it defective because persons with a subsisting right were never served, put the papers before the competent revenue officer for review of the attestation. He cannot try the question of title: revenue jurisdiction is summary, and a genuine dispute over ownership, the validity of the family settlement, or the mortgage belongs to the civil court.
What she must be told in writing: her remedy is a suit for declaration and possession, with an application for a temporary injunction to stop the levelling; separately she may apply for partition of her and her children's shares once title is settled. She should also be told, plainly, that going to the press changes nothing in the file.
Record-keeping point: the bank's mortgage must be entered, not concealed, so that no third party later claims to be a purchaser without notice.
2. On the footing that the land in khasra 214/3 was the deceased's sole property, compute the shares of the widow and the four children in marla and in kanal–marla, and explain why the answer does not depend on the mutation.
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Total area: 8 kanal 8 marla = (8 × 20) + 8 = 168 marla.
Where there are surviving children, the widow's statutory/Islamic share is 1/8.
- Widow: 168 × 1/8 = 21 marla (1 kanal 1 marla).
- Residue for the children: 168 − 21 = 147 marla, divided in the ratio 2:1 (son : daughter).
- Share units: (2 sons × 2) + (2 daughters × 1) = 6 units; 147 ÷ 6 = 24.5 marla per unit.
- Each son: 2 units = 49 marla (2 kanal 9 marla). Each daughter: 1 unit = 24.5 marla (1 kanal 4.5 marla).
Check: 21 + 49 + 49 + 24.5 + 24.5 = 168 marla. The arithmetic closes.
Why the mutation is irrelevant to this calculation: the mutation is an entry about a transaction; the shares flow from the relationship and the death, not from the entry. If partition is ever ordered, these are the shares to enter. Note also that the 4 kanal mortgaged to the bank cannot be deducted from the widow's 21 marla; the charge, if valid at all, attaches only to whatever share the brother is finally held to own.
3. The brother is levelling the plot and has mortgaged 4 kanal. Set out what interim steps are within the tehsildar's power, what is not, and the order in which to take them.
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Within his power:
- Record the dispute in the roznamcha and on the file, with a date.
- Issue notice to both sides and take written statements.
- Complete the girdawari as it is: wheat sown by Nasreen is a fact of possession, not a finding on title.
- Decline, with written reasons, to attest any further mutation on khasra 214/3 while the dispute stands recorded.
- Report the matter to the AC Revenue, especially because a press campaign and a physical confrontation are being threatened.
- Send the patwari to record the spot position (crop, construction, boundaries) so the facts are preserved for whichever forum decides.
Outside his power: he cannot order the bank to cancel the mortgage, cannot issue an injunction, cannot send police to stop the tractor, and cannot 'cancel' the earlier mutation merely because he believes it wrong. Injunctions and possession are civil remedies; police aid follows a court order, or a magistrate's order where there is a threat of breach of the peace.
Sequence: notice today; written reply to the lawyer within the week stating what has been done and what is outside the officer's competence; advise the suit plus a stay on construction before the levelling destroys the evidence of possession; keep the girdawari current. The one thing not to do is to promise a result within seven days that the office cannot lawfully deliver.