CWP No.2184 of 2010 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. CWP No.2184 of 2010 Date of Decision: 8.2.2010 Om Parkash and another .....Petitioners Vs. Financial Commissioner, Haryana and others ....Respondents .... CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAJIVE BHALLA **** Present : Mr.B.S. Baath, Advocate for the petitioners. .... RAJIVE BHALLA, J (Oral) The petitioners challenge orders dated 23.7.2009, 30.9.2009 and 15.12.2009, passed by revenue authorities setting aside the mutation sanctioned in their favour. Counsel for the petitioners submits that the Thakur Dass, father of the petitioners and the private respondents has not been heard of since December 1988. Before his disappearance, he executed a Will dated 24.2.1986, bequeathing his property to the petitioners and their mother. The petitioners, therefore, approached revenue authorities for sanction of a mutation. Vide order dated 16.5.2007, the Assistant Collector, 2nd Grade, Sadhaura, sanctioned the mutation. However, the Collector vide order dated 23.7.2009 reversed the order by holding that the Will appears to be forged CWP No.2184 of 2010 2 and fabricated. The order passed by the Collector has been affirmed by the Commissioner and the Financial Commissioner. It is argued that the findings recorded by the Collector that the Will is forged and fabricated are arbitrary, as no evidence has been led to prove this fact. It is further argued that revenue authorities do not have jurisdiction to examine the legality of a testamentary document and are, therefore, duty bound to attest and sanction a mutation on the basis of a Will. I have heard counsel for the petitioners and express my inability to hold that the orders passed against the petitioners are, in any manner, illegal or void. Admittedly, the unregistered Will is subject matter of a civil suit between the parties. The mutation sanctioned in favour of the petitioners, without service of a notice upon the other legal heirs is legally not tenable. Even otherwise, it is inherently unsafe to sanction a mutation on the basis of an unregistered Will, particularly when the testator has been missing for more than a decade. In this view of the matter, the present petition is dismissed. It is, however, made clear that any findings recorded by revenue authorities or observations made herein before shall not bind the civil court, while deciding the suit. 8.2.2010 (RAJIVE BHALLA) GS JUDGE