By: Mohd Amin Mir
In the rugged villages and rice fields of Jammu & Kashmir, the word jamabandi carries an almost sacred weight. It is not just a register of land rights—it is a ledger of family history, a record of blood and toil, and a legal backbone of rural life. Yet, many such jamabandies are riddled with glaring errors—wrong ownership entries, outdated family partitions, incorrect khasra numbers, missing girdawaris, and decades-old discrepancies.
As the government races towards digitization of land records under the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), a pressing question haunts thousands of landowners: Can you digitize what is not even accurate in the first place?
The rectification files—those dusty, hand-written pleas submitted in tehsil offices, requesting corrections in revenue records—are now gathering more metaphorical dust in digital servers and unresponsive bureaucracies. For many landlords, the dream of seeing their correct landholding in a sleek digital format remains just that—a dream.
This article dives deep into the crisscrossed lanes of record rectification, the digital promise of transparency, and the growing impatience of a generation caught between physical errors and digital silence.
Section I: A Legacy of Errors
Before we digitize, we must confront the legacy we are digitizing. Jamabandies, especially in villages across Kashmir and Jammu regions, contain errors that are both systemic and human:
Wrong Entries: Mutation records that were never entered correctly, often due to errors by patwaris or in the absence of required documents like death certificates, Tatima Shajra, or proper identification of possession.
Oral Gift Transfers: Undocumented family transfers done decades ago orally, now lost in memory but still creating contestation on paper.
Agrarian Reforms Chaos: Post-1971 land reforms led to widespread mutations under the Agrarian Reforms Act. Many of these were never updated properly or were overwritten during successive jamabandi revisions.
Lack of Tatima Maps: Without sub-divisional maps, survey numbers are floating without geographic precision, and overlapping claims abound.
“We were told our land is being digitized, but the system shows the wrong owner,” says Ghulam Nabi, a 68-year-old landowner in Kulgam, whose family has been in possession of the same orchard since 1980. “We filed rectification requests five years ago. Nothing happened.”
Section II: Rectification Files—The Forgotten Backbone of Reform
Rectification files—essentially written applications with supporting documents like sale deeds, inheritance chains, death certificates, or physical possession records—are filed by landowners at the tehsil office when errors are spotted in jamabandies.
However, multiple problems plague this process:
Delay in Disposal: Revenue officers are overburdened or indifferent, leading to a pile-up of unresolved applications.
Lack of Transparency: There is no online tracking system for rectification files; applicants are forced to visit tehsil offices repeatedly.
Fear of Accountability: Some officers avoid correcting long-pending mistakes, fearing legal challenges or internal inquiries.
Dependency on Field Staff: Naib Tehsildars and Patwaris often delay spot verification, without which no correction is possible.
The irony is stark: the very files that must be resolved before any meaningful digitization can occur are left in bureaucratic limbo.
Section III: Digital Jamabandi—A Promise Wrapped in Red Tape
The government’s digitization push is commendable, and DILRMP has brought structural improvements. Digital land portals have been launched, and many districts have completed scanning and entry of records. Yet, the e-jamabandies being uploaded often mirror the physical errors they were supposed to correct.
“Digitization without rectification is like photocopying a mistake,” says Advocate Ishfaq Ahmad, who has dealt with dozens of land disputes arising from digital errors.
Issues with the current digital rollout include:
Legacy Errors Transferred As-Is: No filtration or correction mechanism in data entry.
No Unified Correction Portal: Landowners have no interface to request corrections in digital jamabandies.
Contradictory Records: In some cases, physical jamabandies and digital records don’t match, leading to confusion in banks, courts, and administrative offices.
Lack of User Awareness: Farmers and elderly landlords don’t know how to access or interpret digital land records.
Section IV: The Human Cost of Delay
Behind every incorrect entry lies a story of frustration, often with legal and economic consequences:
Bank Loans Denied: Farmers are refused credit because their name isn’t correctly recorded.
Inheritance Disputes: Sons and daughters fight in courts over jamabandies that were never updated post their father’s death.
Land Sales in Limbo: Buyers and sellers are hesitant to complete transactions due to legal ambiguities in land titles.
Court Cases Drag On: Judges are forced to rely on outdated jamabandies submitted by patwaris as “latest,” leading to injustice.
“I spent Rs. 50,000 fighting a case just to correct a father’s name on the land record. It still hasn’t been updated,” laments Shabir Ahmad, a resident of Baramulla.
Section V: Where Reform Must Begin
Digitization is necessary, but it must follow rectification. Here’s what must be done—urgently and systematically:
- Tehsil-Level Rectification Camps
Regular rectification camps should be held at the village or tehsil level, with patwaris, girdawars, and Naib Tehsildars examining rectification files on spot.
- Online Rectification Portal
J&K’s land records portal should include a transparent, time-bound interface for citizens to submit correction requests, upload documents, and track their status.
- Time-Bound Disposal Policy
A legal mandate that all rectification files must be addressed within 90 days, with automatic escalation if the deadline is missed.
- Tatima Mapping Drives
Survey numbers must be verified on ground with updated Tatima Shajra creation, using GPS and satellite imagery wherever possible.
- Digital-Physical Cross-Verification
Before final digitization, each jamabandi should be cross-verified with physical possession, past mutations, and community input (lumberdars, chowkidars).
- Revenue Training & Accountability
Patwaris and girdawars must be trained not just in digital tools but in citizen engagement and error handling. Officers should be held accountable for undue delays in correction.
Section VI: Hope Amidst Hesitation
Despite challenges, some districts are showing progress. In Anantnag and Budgam, tehsildars have conducted spot girdawaris for long-pending rectifications. Pilot programs for citizen rectification portals are being considered in Srinagar and Kathua. NGOs and civil society have also begun to educate farmers on their rights to correct and access records.
Yet, the larger system remains sluggish. The pressure to meet digitization targets must not override the foundational work of correction.
Digitize What is Right, Not Just What is Ready
India’s digital land record revolution is a defining moment in rural governance. But if we are digitizing errors, we are only encoding injustice. For Jammu & Kashmir, where land is identity, memory, and sustenance, the stakes are even higher.
As the jamabandi moves from ink and paper to screens and servers, let us not leave behind the truth buried under the mistakes of the past. Rectification is not a delay—it is the precondition of justice.
Landlords across the Valley are not asking for miracles. They are simply asking to be recorded as who they truly are—and for that truth to be preserved in both paper and pixel.
