Definition of ROR

• According to Obaidul Haque Chowdhury, a “khatiyan” is a document that keeps a record of important information about a specific piece of land. It shows all the details related to that land.
• Justice Kazi Ebadul Hoque describes it as a document made by conducting surveys, which contains specific information about a piece of land.
• Sir Henry Maine described a record of rights as a detailed statement that lists all the rights related to a piece of land. This statement is created periodically by government officials who examine the claims made by the government regarding its share of the rent from the land. Although it doesn’t establish ownership, it creates a presumption in favor of the information stated in it, which remains valid until proven otherwise.
• In the Lal Mia v Haji Ibrahim Mia and others case, it was stated that a record of rights is not a document that proves ownership. It doesn’t grant or revoke ownership of land. It can, at most, support other evidence that proves ownership. On its own, it is not sufficient evidence of ownership.

Why is the Record-of-Rights prepared?

The state owns all the land. But it faces difficulties in directly collecting revenues (taxes) from people who use the land.

So earlier, the state created an intermediate class called zamindars to help collect revenues. Zamindars had to pay the state a fixed amount of revenue every year.

These intermediaries, like Zamindars, would pay a fixed amount of revenue to the state after collecting a larger amount from the land users. They would keep some portion of the collected amount.

If zamindars fail to pay the state on time, and the zamindari (the rights to collect revenue) can be sold to other zamindars.

Similarly, if the land users defaulted on payments to the Zamindars, their lands would also be auctioned to other users through suit and sale certificates. But the sale certificates alone did not constitute a legal title deed.

Later, when a transfer deed was made after delivering possession, the transfer deed along with the sale certificate would be treated as the document of title or proof of ownership. Without these documents, there was no valid proof of ownership.

For collecting rents, Zamindars would issue a document called khatiyan. This recorded how much rent is to be paid depending on the type of land and how it is used. So the khatiyan was treated as a rent collection record.

They could be used to check how long a farmer hadn’t paid to challenge any claims of gaining ownership through long possession.

Nowadays, Record of Rights is needed to make land ownership clear and undisputed. It helps simplify:

• Resolving land disputes
• Fixing and collecting revenue
• Transferring or selling land
• Tracking ownership history over time
• Managing land records properly

This maintains clear discipline in the land revenue administration system.

Classification of Record-of-Rights

During the time when landlords called zamindars controlled land ownership, records of land rights were called khatiyans. There were two types of khatiyans:

1. Maliki (owner) khatiyan This was prepared in the name of the zamindar or landlord for all the lands under their control. It showed that they were the legal owners of that land.
2. Projayi (tenant) khatiyanThis was prepared for tenants who were farming the land under a zamindar but did not legally own the land. It showed that they had the right to cultivate the land as tenants. Projayi khatiyans also included records for tenants cultivating government land directly. When land surveys were first done, khatiyans were made based on who was physically possessing and farming each plot of land. Tenants got khatiyans showing documents like receipts, deeds etc. as proof of how long they had the land. However, the khatiyans did not always mention how the tenants got possession, like through inheritance. That was not mandatory. Later, when more detailed land surveys started in 1889, there were two types of khatiyans:A) Mutation Khatiyan:
   • A mutation khatiyan is prepared when there are changes in land ownership, like inheritance or settlement.
   • Surveys of land are not done very often. Between two surveys, the names and details of new owners, inheritors or settlers need to be added to the existing records.
   • So to record these changes, the Assistant Collector (AC Land) prepares a mutation khatiyan.
   • This mutation khatiyan has the same importance as the main survey khatiyan.
   • Earlier these were handwritten, but now some offices print them using computers.
   B) Survey Khatiyan:
   • A survey khatiyan is prepared and revised during different land surveys. It is named after the survey.
   • The Department of Land Records and Surveys controls and guides the preparation of this khatiyan.
   • This department has its own printing press called the Settlement Press to print the survey khatiyan.
   • The printed khatiyan is bound in Register No. 1, also called Jamabandi Register. Each register contains details of 100 people or families in an area.
   • The survey khatiyan is sent to different land records offices like the Deputy Commissioner, AC Land, Tehsil office, District Judge office for records.
   • Some copies of the Survey Khatiyan are also left unbound and made available for sale at the record room of the Deputy Commissioner. People often refer to these copies as the ‘sale khatiyan.’

Types of Survey Khatians

1. C.S. Khatiyan

• C.S. Khatiyan was prepared after a detailed cadastral survey (detailed field survey) of land plots.
• This survey was done under the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 and Sylhet Tenancy Act of 1936.
• The C.S. survey started in 1888 in Cox’s Bazar area and ended in 1943 in Dinajpur.
• In some areas, a local survey called D.S. or District Survey was also done.
• The C.S. survey under the Sylhet Tenancy Act started in 1950 in Sylhet and ended in 1963. This was the first large and detailed plot-by-plot land survey done in Bangladesh.
• The C.S. Khatiyan has details of the landowner (superior interest) on the top part of the first page. Below this is details of the farmer cultivating the land (raiyat or possessor). The second page gives details of the specific land plot like its size. [জমিদারদের নাম মেনশন করা ছিলো।]
• The C.S. Khatiyan is considered legally very strong valid proof of land ownership and rights.
• Portrait paper format; vertical.
• মেয়ার পজেসন এর উপর ভিত্তি করে।

2. R.S. Khatiyan

• The R.S. Khatiyan is a land record prepared under a law passed in 1885 called the Bengal Tenancy Act.
• It is based on a survey done to revise an earlier land record called the C.S. Record-of-Rights.
• The revision survey started in 1923 in Chittagong. But it was stopped for some time during World War 2. After the war ended, the survey resumed in Faridpur and it finally ended in 1952 in Bakerganj after covering all areas except some that were affected by the partition of India and Pakistan.
• The R.S. Khatiyan contains updated information about land ownership and tenants.
• It was prepared on a special vertical paper with two pages.
• In some parts of Bengal like Sylhet district, the older C.S. Record-of-Rights was never revised and the R.S. Khatiyan was not prepared.

3. S.A. Khatiyan

• The S.A. Record-of-Rights, also called the S.A. Khatiyan, was prepared after a land survey conducted by the government under a law passed in 1950: section 17 of the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act, 1950.
• This survey is called the State Acquisition Survey.
• The S.A. Khatiyan started being prepared in 1954 in Patuakhali and finished in 1965 in Faridpur.
• It recorded only the names and details of the tenants (later called maliks) who were directly renting land from the government.
• This record is also sometimes called the PS Khatiyan or Pakistan Survey Khatiyan. In some areas it is called the modified record of rights (MRR) Khatiyan or locally the ’62 record.
• The S.A. Khatiyan was hastily written down without a proper field survey. It was created by using old land records or by asking landlords for information. So there were many mistakes in the S.A. Khatiyan.
• The lands were not always surveyed correctly. Old records were sometimes torn or incorrect. Mistakes also happened when the information was written down.
• Most of the time the S.A. Khatiyan kept the same map and plot numbers from previous land records. In some places where there were big land disputes, new maps were made.
• The S.A. Khatiyan does not prove the lands are correctly recorded because it was made quickly without enough money and staff after the country became independent. A proper plot-by-plot field survey was not done.
• The S.A. Khatiyan was recorded on large landscape paper to fit all the handwritten details. It has two pages with information about the tenants and land portions. In some areas it is one printed page containing all details.
• জমিদারদের নাম উচ্ছেদ করা হয়।
• মালিক ছিলো tenants.
• Weak evidence.

4. R.S. Khatiyan

• It is prepared based on a revisional survey conducted under section 144 of the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950.
• The R.S. Khatiyan started being prepared after the old S.A. Khatiyan system ended in 1965. It was first introduced in Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions in 1965. Then it was extended to Chittagong division in 1970-71.
• New R.S. Khatiyans were also prepared for other districts like Kushtia in 1975-76, Pabna in 1975-76 and Mymensingh-Jamalpur in 1978-97.
• The R.S. Khatiyan holds legal importance as evidence of land ownership. This is because it is based on a plot-by-plot survey where the legality of possession of each land plot is examined.
• The khatiyan is recorded on a vertically oriented paper (portrait).
• In some districts like Dhaka, the khatiyan is spread across two pages like the C.S. Khatiyan.
• S.A. কে একুরেসি দেয়ার জন্য।

5. B.S. Khatiyan

• Since 1985, a new land survey called the Bangladesh Survey has been conducted across the country under Section 144 of the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act, 1950. This survey revises the existing R.S. Record-of-Rights.
• It is not clear if the new record prepared will be a revised version of the existing record or an entirely new one, called the B.S. Record-of-Rights. This is because Section 144 deals with both preparing and revising land records. However, it is being referred to as the B.S. Khatiyan.
• The B.S. Khatiyan is recorded on a horizontally oriented paper (landscape format).
• Like other land records, the B.S. Record-of-Rights will be legally valid. This is because it is prepared through a plot-by-plot survey and by examining the legal status of each plot’s possession.

6. Bangladesh Revised Survey (BRS) Record-of-Rights

• It is also a type of R.S. Khatiyan/land record.
• If an area did not have a new survey after the R.S. survey, but the B.S. survey was conducted, then the new record is called the BRS khatiyan.

7. Diara Survey Record-of-Rights

• “Diara” means river islands or newly formed land from sediment deposits.
• The Diara Survey started in 1862 in the Sundarbans region during British rule.
• It surveys land created naturally by rivers depositing silt over time, like chars (river islands).
• The land record prepared for such diara or new riverine land is called the Diara Survey Khatiyan.
• These special land records can be found in districts like Rajshahi, Narsingdi, Barisal and Chittagong which have large areas of diara land formed by rivers over time.