#Bombay Tenancy Act

The Bombay High Court has ruled that the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal overstepped its revisional powers by directly deciding the merits of a tenancy dispute after quashing a remand order. This reinforces the statutory hierarchy: revisional forums must preserve the appellate stage and cannot substitute themselves as fact-finders, safeguarding litigants' right to a full hearing before the next level of adjudication.

Bombay High Court reinforces that claims of permanent tenancy under Section 70(b) of the Bombay Tenancy Act require consistent documentary evidence of 35-year cultivation and rent payment. Oral testimony and disputed revenue records, without corroboration, fail to establish tenancy rights, setting a strict evidentiary standard for tenancy disputes.

The Bombay High Court has ruled that revenue officials cannot unilaterally record tenancy in land records under Section 149 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code without a prior judicial or quasi-judicial determination of tenancy rights under the Bombay Tenancy Act, 1948. This clarifies that fiscal mutations are procedural, not substantive, and protects landowners from arbitrary claims disguised as record updates.