The Mystery of Indian Property System: Poramboke, Patta, Land Titling and Beyond

The Mystery of Indian Property System:  Poramboke, Patta, Land Titling and Beyond

Landed Property and its management has been a challenge in Modern India whether Urban or Rural. Though there are scores of scholars working on Property, Land Titling on Urban or rural context, one missing part in their literature is “The History of Property System and its understanding in Indian Context”.

I tried to sketch the outline of the historicity of property system with a series of question encountered from a French Geographer and a research Collaborator. My reply to him has been summated as a brief history. I wish this is the first piece of its kind written on Indian, especially the Post Colonial understanding of Indian Property System.

The aim of this paper is to give a clear and documented statement on what is shaping the India’s property debates and practices today in urban context. It offers a description of the historical setting of the present legal landscape structuring the principle of real property (common, public and private). We are studying titling of individual possession in urban squatter area. In order to understand what is titling we have to have the background of property system in India. I wish at least one or two will be interested to work for PhD under my supervision, which not only benefit the administrative system but also fetch them a good career. Unfortunately, I have not come across one single PhD candidate with a fire in his/er eyes, approaching for PhD. The success of this blog post, I would see that some one passes the information that in the entire India, there is one man in Pondicherry University within the age group below 40 is on the watch for suitable candidates.

Property System in India:

             The Indian Independence from British in 1947 resulted in a series of property reforms, that reflects in present day India:  as (1) Abolition of Intermediary and Conversion to Ryotwari (2) Land Reforms Acts. These both legislative interventions paved way for access to land by landless poor.

Urban Context:

            The consciousness of “Urban Property” or “Urban Context of Property” in India came to force only in late 1960’s. What differentiated urban and rural was merely the intervention made by the English Colonizers. Though the term “Pattanam[1]”, meaning “City” existed in ancient Tamil literatures, they merely meant the regional and the intercontinental markets that formed the hub of commercial activity. There are very evident sources in India especially in Chennai the capital of the province of Tamil Nadu that the very first legislation on Urban Property Context were made in 1976.It was Urban Ceiling Act, 1976. The ever increasing population in urban agglomerations made the government to announce various schemes to accommodate the migrant as well as native population in City area that gave way for “Slum Clearance Board”, where in vertical tenements were built for the urban poor by the Government. Thus it was only a reactive administration in urban context in India and it was never proactive.

Transforming Towns and Villages and their impact on Property Management

The case study we have taken for instance displays the problems associated with (1) Generating Funds for basic service maintenance such as Drinking water, sanitation and road infrastructure (2) and the issue of “Property Titling” – It is at this point it is stated that there are very many aberrations are there in the available literature. Our present study not only studies property system in an urban context but also to provide some clarity of the various terms often misunderstood and misinterpreted. It also sets out to measure land titling in urban context and the relative chance of capital formation because of the Lad Titling system.

A brief outline of Indian Property system with reference to Land Titling

India has only three types of properties such as (1) Agricultural (2) Non-Agricultural and (3) Common properties. By social practice, we see a set of new unrecorded conventions and power structures with reference to Private Properties. However, Private property was never documented in ancient Indian literatures. It is also pertinent to point out that the Indian Land Administration derives its genesis from “Land Revenue Administration”, where every land record created aimed at tapping the revenue to the state.

The king generously donated agricultural land for temples so that the agricultural revenue from that land may be used for running the temple. The later legal system that was developed with the fusion of English Property system and Mughal system of Administration. The ‘gifts’ to individuals by the Muslim rulers called “Jagirs”, “Inams” etc and the grants made by the earlier Indian rulers as Brammadeyam and Dharamadheyam land paved way for the notion of private property system. Invariably, all individual property ownership is associated with a term called “Patta”.

Individual Ownership of Land – The Patta Mystery of India(Tamil Nadu)

Individual ownership and related records – legal system, their understanding by common people.

Common people consider “patta” as their ultimate proof of title of ownership of the land. Patta is nothing but the copy of the document called “Settlement Register”, maintained in the Revenue Office at each Sub-division of a District. The Settlement Register mentions that a specofoc land measuring such extent is under the enjoyment of a particular individual.

This Patta reflects the land registry and in practice, not all patta may reflect the reality, because eaqch time the land gets sold , the title change does not happen automatically. The system as it exist today require the land purchaser to follow the process of updating of records and many illiterate, unaware citizens do not have a patta even though they would have purchased the land. This has indeed given many civil litigations and contestations.

However, the relevant point relevant that the term “Patta”, that is the one word understood as (1) Ownership Title Deed (2) Certificate of Ownership.

The understanding of patta as ‘deed system’ is the institutional interpretation to deal with  tax, registry of possession and assertion of the control of the state control and in social practice would mean ‘patta’ as a presumptive title, where the name of the  Individual gets links to the landed property. There is one more practice oriented possession of land called “Adverse Possession”, that legitimizes the claim of Squatters called “ B-Memo”, that is the sole proof of squatters, if they are habiting a classification of Common Land called “Poramboke Land. The possession of B- Memo has in real, given a confidence to people that they have crossed the first hurdle in their long struggle of obtaining their Patta.  

Understanding of Patta
Legal	Practice
It is issued to Squatters that they are levied a penalty of a meagre amount say Rs. 5/- per cent for a revenue year for squatting Government Land without binding to law. The text of the patta is very rude and sharp and say that the squatting is not legal and liable for eviction.	People consider that this one step for regular title and claim that B- Memo will assure them patta ultimately. In other words B- Memo is a deemed to be an imitation of Patta.

Conditional patta (1822) colonial arrangement for ensuring property to landless Legal base what is called today as free House Site patta (Revenue Standing Order 15)

State Sponsored Patta for Squatters involve a Process called “De-Classification of Common Land”

The process of declassification is a clear evidence of theory-practice divide. For example, on revenue record viz., the settlement register it might appear “River”, or “ Cattle Pound”, or “ Grazing Ground” or as in the case of Ponmudi Nagar “ Lake”. But in reality, due to changing land use pattern, change of river course and other natural and manmade causes, the classification of the land has been done by the State inorder to place the common land for public/private use. Since human habitation cannot be legally done in a land classified as lake, the Government orders for change of classification and then calls it as “ Natham Settlement (Habitable Land)” or “ College Poramboke ( if it has been given for starting a Government College)”, depending upon the exigencies.

Issue of Land Title by Expropriation

Land reform, the process of acquiring surplus land from the land lords and expropriating it to land less poor as redistributed  of private properties also involve the same declassification procedure.  In this case, the Private Land/ Individual Patta lands are taken possession by the State by notifications under Land Reforms Act and the classified as “Government Poramboke”, and then the procedure as per R.S.O (Revenue Standing Order 15) for conditional patta is made and given to individuals.

Titling for Urban Poor

In the state of Tamil Nadu by the year 1975, urban unused Government Land as well as land acquired from Private person were developed as vertical tenements with all civic amenities and handed over to beneficiaries as part of “Social Empowerment Project”. In this case, the beneficiaries are granted a ‘joint-patta’ after the expiry of ten years and until then, legally the tenements must not be sold.  But the practice is that the tenements under Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board have seen enormous sale transaction outside the purview of the state that is, the sale transacted would be never registered and the integration and identification of real owner and the title of ownership of the tenement are seldom verified and checked.

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 ( This is a contribution towards a research Project by me. Sharing in Public Domain to assist young administrators in Civil Service dealing with Land Revenue Administration. No part is to be reproduced in any form for academic writing without obtainig the consent from the research team)

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[1] Kaveripoompattinam, Kayalpattinam, Nagapattinam were well established coastal cities along the South eastern coast of India.