The High Court dismissed a writ petition seeking a certificate to set aside orders confirming the recovery of possession of lands already acquired by the Government for a dam project. The Court held that the title stood vested with the State post-acquisition, making the certificates illegal, and upheld the lower authorities' findings.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction)
THURSDAY, THE SIXTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT
PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN WRIT PETITION No: 13661 of 2001
Between:
2 J.Amruthamma, W/o. John Reddy, R/o. Kampasagar, Nalgonda District. 3 Satyagrahi Reddy @ Satyagrahi, S/o. John Reddy, R/o. Kampasagar, Nalgonda District.
..... PETITIONER(S)
AND
.....RESPONDENT(S)
Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue an order or direction or writ specially Writ of Certiorari calling for the records and set aside Procds.No.C/4480/2000 dt. 26-3-2001 of respondent No.1 in confirming the procdds.No.D/2803/2000 dt. 1010-2000 of Respondent No.2 as violative of Art.14 and 300-A of Constitution of India and against principles of natural justice as same being without jurisdiction totally either under the provisions of A.P. (TA) Abolition of Inams Act, 1955 or under A.P. ROR IN Land Act, 1971 and consequently direct the respondents not to interfere with the peaceful possession of the petitioners of their land i.e. Ac.2.0 in Sy.No.61 and Ac.1.20 gts in Sy.No.62 of petitioner No.1, Ac.1.0 in Sy.No.61 of petitioner No.2 and Ac.1.10 gts in Sy.No.64 and Ac.1.10 gts in Sy.No.65, of Petitioner No.3 all situated in Kampasagar Village, Tripuraram Mandal, Nalgonda
District and pass
Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.P.PANKAJ REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR REVENUE
The Court made the following : ORDER:
In this writ petition, the order passed by the 1st respondent - Revenue Divisional Officer, Miryalaguda, vide proceedings No.C/4480/2000 dated 26-03-2001, dismissing the appeal preferred against the order passed by the 2nd respondent - Mandal Revenue Officer, Tripuraram Mandal, Nalgonda District, vide proceedings No.B/2803/2000 dated 10-10-2000, is impugned as arbitrary and illegal.
The 1st petitioner was granted Occupancy Right Certificates under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh (Telangana Area) Abolition of Inam Act, 1955, on 17-031992 in respect of the lands purchased by him for an extent of Acs.2-00 gts in Sy.No.61 and Ac.1-20 gts in Sy.No.62 in all a total extent of Acs.3-20 gts situated in Kampasagar village, Tripuraram Mandal, Nalgonda District. The 2nd petitioner purchased an extent of Ac.1-00 gts of land in Sy.No.61 and the 3rd petitioner purchased Ac.1-10 gts of land in Sy.No.64 and Ac.1-10 gts of land in Sy.No.65 situated in Kampasagar village, Tripuraram Mandal, Nalgonda District, from their vendors. The claim of the petitioners is that those transactions were regularized under the provisions of
the Andhra Pradesh Record of Rights in Land And Pattadar Pass Books Act, 1971, after due enquiry, and that the 2nd respondent issued pattadar passbooks and title deeds in Form XIII-B Certificates. The 2nd respondent, vide proceedings No.B/2803/2000 dated 1010-2000, observed that, on verification of the records, it came to light that the pattadar passbooks had been issued for the lands acquired by the Government, that at present there were pits, that the land was given to the District Scheduled Castes Cooperative Society for selecting scheduled caste beneficiaries for rearing fish and keeping that in view the pattadar passbooks issued for the lands in Sy.Nos.61, 62, 64 and 65 were cancelled and the petitioners were asked to handover the pattadar passbooks and orders were passed for recovery of possession of the lands from them.
Aggrieved thereby, they approached this Court by filing W.P.No.24494 of 2000 and this Court, by the order dated 13-12-2000, directed them to file an appeal before the 1st respondent and further directed the 1st respondent to dispose of the same on merits. The 1st respondent – appellate authority, by the impugned order, rejected the appeal preferred against the orders passed by the 2nd respondent vide proceedings No.B/2803/2000 dated 10-10-2000 observing that the land in Sy.No.61, 62, 64 and 65, along with the other lands, were acquired by the Special Deputy Collector (Nagarjuna Sagar) Project for formation of Left Main canal of Nagarjuna Sagar
Project long back in the year 1961 and as a quarry for removal of soil for formation of canal bunds, that, after removal of soil, the acquired lands had become barren lands and, due to flow of water through the main canal, the adjacent ditches were fully covered with water and had become ponds and that, while inspecting the big water ponds in the Government land/acquired lands abutting the Left main Canal of Nagarjuna Sagar Project for allotment to the poor scheduled caste people for aquaculture, the 2nd respondent had also verified the old records and had observed that the land in Sy.Nos.61, 62, 64 and 65 were already acquired by the Nagarjuna Sagar Project authorities in the year 1961, that compensation was paid to the original land owners, that it was reported by the 2nd respondent that the lands which were acquired by the Nagarjuna Sagar Project authorities were converted into ion kammi through the Faisal Patti in the year 1964-65 itself, that the petitioners, suppressing these facts, had got issued Form XIII-B Certificates and Occupancy Right Certificates illegally for the acquired lands over which they had no right as the ownership right stood vested with the Government soon after acquisition of the land by the Nagarjuna Sagar Project authorities and that the land in question must be treated as Government property. The appellate authority also noted that the entries in the Faisal Pattis for the years 1961-62, 196364, 1964-65 and 1965-66 of Kampasagar village revealed that the lands in Sy.Nos.53, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 and 65 had been granted Kammi Eksala by
the Nazim-E-Jamabandi Officer, since the lands were acquired for formation of canal of Nagarjuna Sagar Project. The 1st respondent also perused the records of the Special Deputy Collector (L.A.) S.L.B.C., Unit-II, G.V.Gudem, Nalgonda in R.Dis.No.A/229/64 dated 29-02-1976 which revealed that an Award was passed vide No.24/64 dated 29-09-1964 for acquiring various extents of lands in Sy.Nos.59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 and 65 and that compensation was paid to the then land owners. The
1st respondent, after extracting details of the extents of lands for which the petitioners had obtained Occupancy Right Certificates and Form XIII-B Certificates, observed that the petitioners herein had managed and obtained false Form XIII-B Certificates for excess area though there was no area left over equivalent to the area shown in Occupancy Right Certificates and Form XIII-B Certificates after acquisition in the year 1961 itself. The appellate authority further observed that the petitioners had no right over the acquired lands which were subsequently formed as water ponds where Fish rearing could be taken up that, once the land was acquired and compensation was paid to its rightful owners, the title of the lands stood vested with the Government and that, even if any subsequent change took place, the petitioners would not have locus standi . The appellate authority also observed that the Form XIII-B Certificates issued in favour of the petitioners by the 2nd respondent in respect of Sy.Nos.61, 62 & 64 had
no validity in the eye of law as there was over lapping of area and the Form XIII-B Certificates were issued for the acquired lands. The appellate authority further observed that the lands in Sy.Nos.61, 62, 64 and 65 were fully covered with water, became water ponds and were not cultivable lands, that the Andhra Pradesh Record of Rights in Land And Pattadar Pass Books Act, 1971, as amended in the year 1989, stipulated that the pattadar pass books and title deeds shall be issued for cultivable lands in the possession of the pattedars and not otherwise and that, in the instant case, the lands were not agricultural lands, were being used for rearing fish, that the lands under appeal were acquired by the Government in the year 1961, and the soil had been removed for formation of bunds, due to which water ponds were formed and that the petitioners had, with a mala fide intention, obtained false certificates for the acquired lands with an attempt to snatch away the livelihood of the poor scheduled caste people under the guise that they had obtained loans from various institutions for fish rearing. The appellate authority also observed that there was no land available in Sy.Nos.61, 62 and 64 after acquisition by the Government equivalent to the area shown in Form XIIIB Certificates. The order passed by the 2nd respondent, was confirmed.
Sri P.Pankaj Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners, would submit that, since the petitioners had purchased the land from their vendors who were
the erstwhile owners of the land, they were rightly issued pattadar pass books and title deeds and that, in any event, the petitioners could not have been evicted from the lands under their possession without complying with the procedure established by law.
It is evident from the order impugned in this writ petition that an Award was passed as early as in the year 1961 whereby the lands were acquired by the Government from the predecessors-in-title of the petitioners and that compensation was paid to them. Consequent to acquisition of the lands, the title of the lands stood vested in the State, and the predecessorsin-title of the petitioners had no right thereafter to alienate the lands over which they had no title. As a result, the petitioners could not have been issued Form XIII-B Certificates or Occupancy Right Certificates over Government lands. The order impugned in the writ petition does not suffer from any infirmity necessitating interference by this Court in proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
The writ petition fails and is, accordingly, dismissed. However, in the circumstances, without costs.
______________________________ RAMESH RANGANATHAN, J.
6th November 2008 CVRK
3 issues framed by the court
Whether the impugned orders confirming the cancellation of pattadar passbooks and directing recovery of possession of acquired Government land are arbitrary and illegal.
Whether the issuance of Occupancy Right Certificates and Form XIII-B Certificates to the petitioners had validity in respect of lands already acquired by the State.
Whether the High Court should interfere under Article 226 of the Constitution of India in the caseworking below.
J. JOHN REDDY
J.AMRUTHAMMA
SATYAGRAHI REDDY
REVENUE DIVISIONAL OFFICER, MIRYALAGUDA
MANDAL REVENUE OFFICER, TRIPURARAM
RAMESH RANGANATHAN
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
