47 tehsildars too on radar for registry violations in Gurgaon

Gurgaon: After cracking down on patwaris and middlemen, Haryana govt has compiled a list of 47 tehsildars who allegedly facilitated land registrations in exchange for bribes.
According to intelligence reports, these officials violated legal provisions, particularly Section 7A of Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, which makes no-objection certificates (NOC) mandatory for registering land.
A tehsildar is responsible for collecting land revenue in a tehsil.
Sources said the officials under scrutiny ignored legal restrictions and approved registrations in exchange for bribes. Govt suspects that these tehsildars own assets disproportionate to their income.
This move is part of the state govt's broader efforts to curb corruption in the revenue department. Govt sources told TOI on Friday that the list of 47 tehsildars has been forwarded only to the deputy commissioners of district administrations to avoid alerting junior officials about this action.
"The list of tehsildars under investigation sends a strong signal that corruption in land dealings will not be tolerated," a senior official of the revenue department said.
Illegal land registrations go back to 2020, when some officials allegedly took advantage of the pandemic months to amass bribes.
The state govt recently formed a special enquiry committee (SEC) to investigate these registrations.
The SEC found that 34 tehsildars and naib tehsildars, and 232 revenue department officials, among them kanungos, auditors, registry clerks and patwaris, were involved in manipulating land records to benefit real estate mafias.
On the SEC's findings, Haryana govt earlier this month released a report on 370 ‘corrupt' patwaris across the state.
A confidential document dated Jan 14 detailed how some of the patwaris — officials who maintain land records — had hired assistants who were placed at revenue offices while the patwaris would run their independent offices.
Afterwards, govt released another list of 404 middlemen, who allegedly acted as brokers and charged money for facilitating land registrations in the name of tehsildars. Some revenue officials were allegedly involved in these dealings too.
Govt, in response, ordered installing CCTVs to curb corruption and unauthorised activities at tehsil offices in the state.