TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2016 (11) TMI 1738
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.... SIKRI, J. 1. Leave granted. 2. The issue involved in these appeals is as to whether the Respondent who was appointed as licenced surveyor Under Section 18A of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, (hereinafter referred to as 'Act') would be treated as "public servant" for the purposes of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. There was a difference of opinion expressed by the different Benches of the High Court and, therefore, the matter was referred to the larger Bench. The Division Bench vide its judgment dated 29th November, 2011 in Criminal Petition No. 10853 of 2011 resolved the issue by holding that such a licenced surveyor would be treated as a 'public servant' as defined Under Section 2(c) of the Prevention of Corrup....
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....e prescribed by inserting a new Section to Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964. It is also proposed, by amending Section 128 and 131 of the said Act, to make it obligatory for any person reporting acquisition of right in a partition in respect of land and any person alienating any land, that is part of a survey or sub-number, to get a sketch of the said property prepared by a Licensed surveyor. Hence the Bill. From the above, it is clear that in order to clear the pending phody cases of about 3 lakhs with regard to measurement, survey sketch, change of survey numbers etc., licensed surveyors possessing requisite qualification and experience are appointed. The licensed surveyors are required to perform the statutory duty of preparing surv....
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.... 2(e) It is also relevant to note that Rule 46-A of the Karnataka Land Revenue Rules, 1966 deals with qualification, experience and age for obtaining license as a licensed surveyor. Rule 46-B mandates that all the persons who apply for license have to compulsorily undergo training for three months and pass such examination conducted by the Survey Settlement Training Institute of Mysore (by the Government) once in a year, as may be notified. License shall be issued by the Director of Survey, Settlement and Land Records, Bangalore under Rule 46-C to the successful candidates in the examination conducted by the aforementioned institute on payment of fee of Rs. 1,000/- for a period of one year subject to renewal every year. The register of the....
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....nder Section 18A of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act would be treated as "public servant" for the purposes of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. 7. After hearing learned Counsel appearing for both the parties, we are of the opinion that such a licensed surveyor is to be treated as public servant. For this purpose, we are entirely in agreement with the view taken by the Division Bench as extracted above. We may mention that different Single Judge Benches of the Karnataka High Court had conflicting views and, for this reason, the matter was referred to the Division Bench which has been answered, by the judgment dated 29th November, 2011 as noted above, holding licensed surveyor to be a public servant Under Section 2(c) of the Prevention of Co....
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....icencees who are bound by the terms of the office as a licensed surveyors. 8. This legal position is curled out from Rule 46-A to 46-K of the Karnataka Land Revenue Rules, read conjointly with Sections 18-A, 128 and 131 of the Act. The aforesaid facts and legal position unambiguously leads to the conclusion that these licensed surveyors are different from those private surveyors who have no license from the State Government. Once survey report is prepared by these persons, the same is duly acted upon, on the basis of which Government functionaries take further action. It is, thus, statutory work of preparing survey sketches which is bestowed upon these licensed surveyors and thus, they are performing statutory duty/public functions. 9. On....