Judgment:
ORDER
M.M. Das, J.
1. Heard Mr. Das, learned Counsel for the petitioner and the learned Counsel for the State.
2. The sole grievance of the petitioner is that the revision filed by him before the Member, Board of Revenue, Orissa, Cuttack being R.P. No. 1109 of 2002, which was renumbered as O.S.S. No. 1664 of 2003, was dismissed by the Member, Board of Revenue before admitting the same and issuing notice on the sole ground that the petitioner though has mentioned the numbers of the sale deeds and a gift deed to show as to how the land has been transferred from time to time, but such documents were not produced before the revisional authority.
3. In case a record is prepared during the course of settlement proceeding, the same can be corrected by exercise of power under Section 32 of the Orissa Survey and Settlement Act, 1958 (for short, 'the Act') by the Member, Board of Revenue. The said provision shows that the Member, Board of Revenue may call for any proceeding and if he finds that the subordinate authority has failed to exercise his jurisdiction so vested in him or while exercising jurisdiction has contravened some express provision of law affecting the decision on merit and resulting in miscarriage of justice, he may pass such order as he deems fit. There is no power given under Section 32 of the Act to dismiss a revision petition filed before him at the stage of admission and that too, on the ground that the original documents, which have been referred to in the revision petition, were not filed along with the petition. Once the Member would have issued notice to the other side, at the stage of admission, the petitioner could have filed all the documents for perusal of the Court during hearing of the same.
4. Since I am of the considered view that the revision petition filed by the petitioner did not require filing of the documents, which were referred therein, the Member, Board of Revenue apparently has committed an error In rejecting the revision application of the petitioner on the ground of non-production of documents referred in the revision petition.
5. Accordingly, the order dated 25.8.2007 passed by the Member, Board of Revenue, Orissa, Cuttack in O.S.S. Case No. 1664 of 2003 under Annexure-2 to the writ petition, is quashed and the matter is remitted back to the said Member, Board of Revenue, who shall issue fresh notice to the opp. parties in the revision and thereafter proceed to dispose of the said matter by affording an opportunity of hearing to both the parties as-well as an opportunity to produce the relevant documents before him for enabling him to exercise jurisdiction vested in him under Section 32 of the Act.
6. The petitioner undertakes to appear before the Member, Board of Revenue on 12.8.2008 and produce the certified copy of this order before him. On production of the certified copy of this order, the Member shall act upon the same and issue notice to the opp. parties fixing a date for their appearance and, thereafter, shall proceed with the matter in accordance with law. The revision having been filed in the year 2002, the same shall be disposed of by the end of this year.
7. The writ petition is accordingly allowed.
Urgent certified copy of this order be granted on proper application.