Crackdown in Haryana 50% revenue officials to face chargesheets

Currently, 58 tehsildars and 156 naib tehsildars are posted across Haryana’s tehsils to oversee various types of land transactions. The sanctioned strength is higher — 96 for tehsildars and 219 for naib tehsildars.

According to sources, the Haryana Revenue Department had initially proposed action against 45 tehsildars, 61 naib tehsildars, 14 district revenue officers (DROs), and nine Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officers — bringing the total to 129.

However, chargesheets have now been approved against 118 of them, while no action has been deemed necessary against 11 officers.

Officials who executed more than 50 land registrations will face charges under Rule-7 of the Haryana Civil Services (Punishment & Appeal) Rules, 2016.

This rule allows for major penalties, including dismissal, removal, or compulsory retirement from service.

Those who executed fewer than 50 registrations will be charged under Rule-8, which provides for minor penalties such as censure, withholding of promotion, or increment.

As per existing regulations, revenue officers are required to register agricultural land—especially land falling within municipal committee jurisdictions—only after obtaining clearance from the Town and Country Planning Department and the respective municipalities.

In such cases, a No Objection Certificate (NOC) under Section 7-A of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (Amendment) Act, 2017 is mandatory.

“But these officers executed the registration of land without due clearance. Final action following issuance of chargesheet will be taken after examining their replies,” a senior state government officer told The Indian Express.

Sources revealed that agricultural land was sold for residential colonies or industrial use without obtaining CLUs (Change of Land Use), allegedly to evade heavy stamp duty and other charges. “The same process was adopted for registration of residential plots,” said an official.

However, a revenue official highlighted the practical challenges faced by tehsildars. “Many of these cases of plots were those which already have all basic amenities including roads and streetlights. In several of the cases reached for registration and sale of the plots were those already having registration of the land concerned. What was the fault of a tehsildar if the land concerned had already a land registration document,” the official said.

The latest decision to chargesheet revenue officers comes less than a month after the state government approved similar action against 80 officials from the Irrigation Department, following the failure of multiple construction material samples from ongoing irrigation projects in quality tests