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1. 1. In 2010, the Central Government prepared a model bill on land titling and sent it to
the States. It is seen that many provisions of the ‘Kerala Land SettlementAct’are not in tune
with the said bill. The pdf of the said Land Titling Bill is attached herewith.
2. The current draft Act does not include 'Title', 'Biometric authentication', 'Certifica-
tion of recording', 'Register of titles' and 'Unique property identification number' mentioned
in the said draft bill of 2010 prepared by the Union Govt. of India. All these must be in-
cluded and defined in the said Act.
3. It would be appropriate to amend the name of the present Act 'Kerala Land Settle-
ment Act' to ‘Kerala Land Survey and Settlement Act’.
4. The term RoR is widely used in many sections in the draft bill. The State currently
has the Kerala Record of Right Act, 1968 and the Kerala Record of Rights Rules, 1969.
RoR is defined in Section 3 (2) of the said Act and the model of RoR is included in the Rule
as Form-2. The term RoR can therefore be omitted from the current draft Act and replaced
with 'Land Title' or 'Conclusive Title'.
5. In the definition of 'Land records' in Section 2(vi), it is appropriate to use 'Textual
and Spatial data' instead of the word 'data'.
6. It would be appropriate to add 'of Government of Kerala' after the word ‘gazette’ in
the definition of 'Notification' in Section 2(viii).
7. The words 'nature' and 'classification' in the definition of 'Settlement' in Section 2(xi)
should be followed by the word 'extent'. In addition, since 'preparation and publication of
Register of Titles' and 'granting of onclusive title' are also part of settlement, they can also
be included in the definition of the word ‘settlement’.
8. In section 3(1), the words, 'order the settlement of any land' may be changed to
'order the survey and settlement of any land' by adding the words 'survey &'.
9. The words 'officers entrusted for the preparation of textual data' may be used in-
stead of the ‘textual data team’ used in Section 4.
10. The word 'survey' may be added before the word 'settlement' in 'The officers con-
ducting the settlement' used in Section 5.
11. The term 'textual data team' is widely used in Section 6. It is also advisable to use
the words ‘committee’ or ‘officers entrusted with preparation of textual data’ instead.
12. In sub-section (3) of Section 6, after the words extent after the words ‘nature, title
and tenure’ the word ‘extent’ may be included.
13. In sub-section (6) of section 6, it may be appropriate to use the words ‘during the
course of survey and settlement’ instead of the words ‘during the course of settlement’.

2. 14. Sub-section (7) of Section 6 refers to the preparation of a draft of textual data known
as ‘settlement’. Settlement is a procedure and not the name of any document. This sub-
section therefore needs to be modified. In addition, this section does not contain any refer-
ences to spatial data. It is therefore imperative that this sub-section be objectively modified.
15. None of the sections describing settlement procedures make any reference to ease-
ment rights and escheated properties or abandoned properties. It is imperative that the settle-
ment procedures be made more comprehensive by including such issues.
16. Instead of the word ‘settlement’ used in the title of sections 8 and 10, the words ‘title
record’ may be used.
17. The current title of the chapter, which includes sections 13 to 19, may be changed
from ‘Record of Right’ to ‘Conclusive Title’ or ‘Land Titling’.
18. It would be appropriate to use a general term for the various authorities used in the
chapter RoR. That is, it would be more appropriate to use the word ‘Settlement Officer’
instead of ‘Tahsildar’and ‘Appellate Settlement Authority’ instead of ‘District Authority’.
19. The word ‘extent’ may also be included in caluse (a) of sub-section (2) of section 13.
20. Reference to ‘easement rights’ may also be included in sub-section (2) of section 13.
21. The subject of ‘Register of Titles’ may also be included in Section 18.
22. It is more appropriate to use ‘Kerala Revenue Settlement Tribunal’ or ‘Kerala Land
Titling Tribunal’ instead of the ‘Kerala Land Revenue Tribunal’ referred to in Section 20.
23. The chapter ‘Dispute Resolution’ does not address the issue of whether the decision
of the Tribunal is final or not.