Patna high court held former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar entitled to compensation for a patch of land acquired by the Bihar government, quashing a district collector's order that cancelled the land's revenue records.
The land in question is a 0.56-acre patch in Patna's Mainpura locality in the Phulwari revenue area, acquired by the state government in 1976 for the construction of a drain.
Justice Khatim Reza, in an order dated October 6, set aside the collector's 2023 order cancelling the jamabandi (revenue record) linked to the land and restored the record in the name of Kumar's mother, Indrani Devi.
As per the order, the land in question had been settled by the erstwhile landlord in 1941 in favour of Gauri Charan Singh, whose descendants subsequently transferred it through registered sale deeds.
Indrani Devi purchased the land in 1965, after which her name was mutated in the revenue records. Kumar's name was also mutated on the basis of a registered will after her mother's demise, it said.
Justice Reza held that proceedings under Section 4(h) of the Bihar Land Reforms Act were dependent on the vesting of an estate in the state government under the Act.
