Historic land records in peril at Tis Hazari, Delhi Cong seeks urgent L-G intervention

Delhi Congress has raised an alarm over the deteriorating condition of historic land records kept at the Tis Hazari Court complex, urging the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor, Vinai Kumar Saxena, to intervene before the documents are permanently lost.

Senior party spokesperson Naresh Kumar has submitted a memorandum to the L-G, with a copy also sent to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.

According to the memorandum, land related documents dating back to 1850 and extending up to 1965, including Lal Dora, agricultural records and other critical land files have “long been decaying due to moisture, dust and lack of proper maintenance”. These records, which relate to several rural belts of Delhi, are reportedly on the brink of destruction.

Kumar said the matter came to light when Nasirpur resident Tejpal Singh recently obtained a copy of his village’s Masabi record from the Tis Hazari record room, only to find it severely damaged. “Its condition was extremely poor, and only one third of the document was found intact,” he noted in the memorandum.

He further claimed that officers posted in the record room had informed senior officials multiple times about the fragile condition of the documents, but the warnings went unheeded. He cautioned that if immediate action is not taken, “Delhi’s rural areas historical and legal documents may be lost forever, which will directly affect land disputes, ownership verification, and judicial processes,” he added.

Kumar urged the L-G to take immediate steps, including an inspection of the record room, preparing a digitisation and preservation plan, forming an expert committee, and securing the documents through scanning or microfilming. Calling these files irreplaceable, he stressed, “This is not just paper but Delhi’s historical heritage and legal capital, and it is the government’s responsibility to preserve it.”

The Delhi Congress has demanded swift action to prevent irreversible loss of archival material essential for legal and historical purposes in the Capital’s rural regions.