High Court Orders on Land Transactions for Freed Kamaiyas and Landless Squatters

Nepalgunj. The High Court Tulsipur has issued an order regarding the partition, name transfer, registration, and settlement management of land acquired by freed Kamaiyas and landless squatters.

A joint bench of Justices Madan Pokharel and Shakuntala Ghimire issued a mandamus in the name of the Land Administration Office, Banke, Kohalpur, and a directive order in the name of the concerned government bodies on Thursday.

The court issued the order in response to a public interest litigation filed by Aganya Tharu and others on April 28, 2082 BS, against the Land Reform and Revenue Office and others, informed Balbahadur Bisht, the Information Officer of the High Court.

According to the verdict, the Land Administration Office has been issued a mandamus to register and transfer the relevant deeds in accordance with the law when a family member of the same household comes for partition regarding land acquired as freed Kamaiya or landless squatter, or when it is necessary to transfer the name by establishing a right of inheritance after the death of the landowner.

The court has directed the government to take necessary initiatives for landless squatters who have received land ownership certificates through various commissions but have not been able to update them and have not been able to acquire land for housing, informed the petitioner advocate Basanta Gautam.

The government had set a condition that freed Kamaiyas could not sell, transfer, donate, or mortgage the land provided for 10 years. However, freed Kamaiyas who received land in 2058 BS filed a public interest litigation in court, stating that they have not been able to partition, transfer names, or carry out other legal procedures for their land even after more than two decades have passed.

More than 250 victims, including Sitaram Tharu, Aganya Tharu, and Seema Tharu of Muktinagar, Kohalpur-2, had sought legal remedies through rights activists and legal practitioners with their land ownership certificates and other documents.