A view of the High Court of Karnataka.
The Karnataka State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (KSC-SC&ST) has no jurisdiction to adjudicate disputes over immovable property or issue binding directions to Revenue or Forest authorities for the mutation of land records, the High Court of Karnataka has ruled.
Noting that functions of the Commission under the KSC-SC&ST Act, 2002, are to examine how Constitutional safeguards and rights of SCs and STs communities are working and take up such issues with the authorities concerned, the court said that the Commission can investigate issues related to SC/ST and make recommendation but it has no power to adjudicate.
“The Commission is not a parallel court. It is an investigating and recommending body. It may inquire into the denial of Constitutional and legal safeguards. It may take up such matters with the proper authorities. It cannot decide disputes of title. It cannot order mutation or transfer of khata. It cannot declare notified forest land to be non-forest land. It cannot order deletion of the entries of the Forest Department…”, the court observed.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order on a writ petition filed by State Revenue and Forest authorities. The State authorities had questioned the Commission’s 2023 direction to them to delete entries of certain lands in Sira taluk, Tumakuru district, from the Forest Department’s records and mutate them in favour of private persons belonging to SC communities.
The authorities had pointed out that private individuals, claiming inheritance rights based on alleged grants from 1937, had approached the Commission after Revenue authorities refused to transfer the khata (land records) in their favour.
“The power under Section 8(b) of the Act to inquire into denial of safeguards to SCs/STs does not include the power to decide the title, the grant, or the forest status of the land, or to order mutation,” the court made it clear.
Stating that benefits and protections for SCs and STs are meant for those who really need them, the court said that the “the Commission does not get jurisdiction over a matter simply because the person who comes to it belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe”.
Published – August 14, 2026 08:16 pm IST
