Assembly adopts 12 Bills, including Land Revenue Bill that seeks to correct Kodagu land records

The Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Tuesday adopted 12 Bills, including the Karnataka Land Revenue (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to remove anomalies in the classification and maintenance of land records in Kodagu district, and the Karnataka Rent (Amendment) Bill.

Piloting the Karnataka Land Revenue (Second Amendment) Bill, Revenue Minister Krishna Byregowda noted that Kodagu had continued to operate its own traditional system of records even after 1964 when the Karnataka Land Revenue Act had come into effect.

Under this pre-independent system, those who served the British in their army had been appointed as agents (Pattedars) to collect revenue on behalf of the British regime. However, the problem started in 2000 when Karnataka moved towards of digitization of land documents through the Bhoomi project, as there was no parity between the records under the Bhoomi and the land records in Kodagu, he noted.

However, the then deputy commissioners of Kodagu had continued with the old system by issuing notifications at their level which created in additional columns in RTC that had entries for pattedars. This triggered legal issued over ownership of land as there was a need to clarify whether the land owner had absolute ownership or if it belonged to pattedars.

Hence, the government was now amending this legislation to provide for empowering tahsildars of Kodagu district to hold hearings and make necessary corrections in the land records to bring them in conformity with present system.

The Karnataka Rent (Amendment) Bill would seek to achieve the principle of “Minimum Government Maximum Governance” by decriminalisation of minor offences and rationalisation of monetary penalties as envisaged in the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023 (Central Act 18 of 2023).

The other Bills adopted by the Assembly included the Karnataka State Universities (Second Amendment) Bill that seeks to change the name of “Ranichannamma University” as “Kitturu Chennamma University”, The Karnataka Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Bill, The Karnataka Cine and Cultural Activists (Welfare) (Amendment) Bill, and The Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Amendment) Bill.

The Malnad Area Development Board (Amendment) Bill, The Bayaluseeme Development Board (Amendment) Bill, Shree Chamundeshwari Kshetra Development Authority and Certain Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, The Chandraguthi Shree Renukamba Kshetra Development Authority Bill, and Sri Malai Mahadeshwaraswamy Kshetra Development Authority (Amendment) Bill were also adopted by the Assembly.