Andhra Pradesh High Court - Amravati
Vallepu Chenchu Krishnaiah vs The State Of Andhra Pradesh, on 2 December, 2020
Author: M. Ganga Rao
Bench: M. Ganga Rao
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE M. GANGA RAO
WRIT PETITION No.21836 OF 2020
ORDER:-
This Writ Petition is filed to issue a Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the Respondents 5 & 6 in refusing to register the sale deed in respect of land an extent of Ac.1.05 cents, situated in Sy.No. 575/2 of Kanapuru Bit-II Village, Venkatachalam Mandal, SPSR Nellore District, referring that the land is included in the Prohibited Property List maintained under Section 22(A) of the Registration Act is illegal, arbitrary and violative of provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Dotted Lands (Updation in Re-Settlement Register) Act, 2017 and consequently direct the 6th respondent to receive and register the sale deed in respect of the land submitted by the petitioner, as per orders of the 4th respondent in R.Dis.E6/2337/2019, dated 16.11.2019 for deletion of the land from the Prohibited Property List.
2. The Case of the petitioner is that the petitioner and his predecessors are in possession and enjoyment of the land an extent of Ac.1.05 cents, situated in Sy.No. 575/2 of Kanapuru Bit-II Village, Venkatachalam Mandal, SPSR Nellore District, which is a private Zeroithi land was shown as dotted (....) land, therefore the land was included in the prohibited property list maintained under Section 22(A) of the Registration Act. The petitioner's family is the absolute owner of the land, which is shown as dotted land in the RSR. The petitioner has submitted an application to the 7th respondent, on receipt of the application, the 7th respondent as prescribed under Rule-4(c) issued a notice in Form-VII calling for objections within 30 days and no objections were received and forwarded the same to District Level Committee. The District Level Committee rep., by its Chairperson/ 4th respondent issued order 2 dated 16.11.2019 deleting the land from the prohibited property list, but the 5th respondent has not implemented the same. Assailing the arbitrary action of the 5th respondent, this Writ Petition came to be filed.
3. Heard the learned counsel for petitioner and learned Government Pleaders appearing for the Respondents.
4. The learned counsel for petitioner would contend that there was batch of Writ Petitions filed questioning the action of the Government and Registering Authority in treating the dotted land as prohibited property for registration based on the entry in the RSR and this Court gave directions to register the lands holding that mere entries of the land as dots in RSR is not a conclusive proof of evidence that the land belongs to Government. As against that order batch Writ Appeals were filed, wherein the Hon'ble Division Bench directed the Government to constitute a Committee to deal with the grievance relating to the lands included in the prohibited property list, including the dotted land.
5. On close perusal of the provisions of the A.P.Dotted Land (Act 10 of 2017) Act (for briefly herein after referred to as the Act) it reveals that as per Section 5 of the Act a District Level Committee is constituted, consisting of District Collector as the Chairperson, Joint Collector, Sub-Collector or Revenue Divisional Officer as members and the Tahsildar as member-convener. They are competent to hear and issue orders on the claims filed. Tahsildar shall file a claim before the District Level Committee. The District Level Committee shall dispose of the claim on merits and pass speaking orders within six months from the date of filing the claim by the Tahsildar. As per the provisions of Section 8 of the Act an appeal shall lie against the orders of the District Level Committee, 3 before the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration within ninety days and the decision of the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration on such appeal shall be final. As per the provisions of Section 9 of the Act, the re-settlement register shall be updated within one month in pursuance of the orders passed under Section 7 or Section 8 of the Act as the case may be, as per the provisions of Section 10 of the Act and the dotted (....) land shall be updated in the name of person in column No.(16) of the re-settlement register and the land shall be deleted from the prohibited property list as notified under Section 22- A(1) of the Act, within one month from the date of the order passed under Section 7 or Section 8 of the Act.
6. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has made rules vide G.O.Ms.No.298, Rev. (Assgn.I) Department dated 17.07.2017, which are called as Andhra Pradesh Dotted Lands (Updation in Resettlement Register) Rules, 2017 (for brevity the 'Rules'). As per Rule 4(c) of the Rules once an application is made, Tahsildar has to enquiry into the same by issuing notice to all the interested persons and affixing notices on the notice board of the Tahsildar, Gram Panchayat office and Village Revenue Office, Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society and any other conspicuous places of the village. Wide publicity shall be given by beat of tom-tom for filing of written objections by any interested person within thirty days from the date of publication of the notice by the Tahsildar/convenor concerned. As per Rule 4 (d) of the Rules Tahsildar shall maintain a Register of objections received in each claim, village-wise and after receiving objections, the Tahsildar shall fix a date for conducting enquiry in the village itself. After completion of enquiry, the Tahsildar shall prepare a comprehensive report and place it before District Level Committee for taking a 4 decision. Rule 4 (m) mandates that the District Level Committee shall take a decision on the report submitted by the Tahsildar after perusing the claim, objections, evidences, records, etc., and shall pass speaking orders under Section 7 of the Act, within six months from the date of filing the claim.
7. An appeal under Rule 5 of the Rules has to be filed before with the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration against the orders of the District Level Committee. The Chief Commissioner of Land Administration shall hear and dispose of the appeal on merits and shall issue speaking order under Section 8 within ninety days. Once an order is passed either under Section 7 or 8, the Tahsildar concerned shall update the re-settlement register and other revenue records including digitally maintained records duly deleting the dotted (....) lines within one month from the date of the order passed under Section 7 or 8 of the Act, as the case may be. As per Rule 7 of the Rules, the District Collector shall furnish the list of lands to the authorities concerned for deletion from the prohibitory list already furnished to Registration Department under Section 22-A(1) of the Act within one month from the date of the order passed under Section 7 or Section 8 of the Act, the Registering Officer concerned shall act as per the list furnished by the District Collect under Rule 7(a) deleting the land from the prohibited list furnished under Section 22-A(1) of the Act.
8. In the present case on hand, the petitioner has made an application as per Rules to the Tahsildar and the Tahsildar issued notice in Form-VII calling for objections within 30 days from the date of issuance of the notice and followed the procedure by affixing the same as per the Rules. Later when no objections were received from any person, the Tahsildar, as per Rule 4 has placed 5 the same before District Level Committee. The District Level Committee after considering all the relevant records found that the lands are under the active possession of the claimant/predecessor for a period of 12 years. The District Level Committee issued orders to the Tahsildar, Venkatachalam Mandal, to take necessary action to treat/recognize dotted (....) land in an extent of Ac.1.05 cents, situated in Sy.No. 575/2 of Kanapuru Bit-II Village, Venkatachalam Mandal, SPSR Nellore District as patta land and to incorporate the changes in the re-settlement register and other revenue records maintained at village level. In the order of the District Level Committee dated 16.11.2019 it is mentioned that an appeal lies to the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration under Section 8 of the Act. An appeal has to be preferred before the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration within 90 days. Undisputedly, in this case no appeal has been preferred by the respondents to the Commissioner of Land Administration and as per the provisions of the Act, a duty is cast upon the respondents to update the re-settlement register and other revenue records including digitally maintained records duly uploading the orders passed under Section 7 or Section 8 of the Act within one month from the date of the order. As per Rule 7 of the Rules, the District Collector shall furnish the list of the lands to the concerned registering authority within one month from the date of the order under Section 7 or Section 8 as the case may be and on such furnishing of the details, the registering authority shall delete the entries. This court on elaborate discussion on the legal position passed order in W.P.No.12515 of 2020 dated 31.07.2020, in similar set of circumstances and directed the respondents to delete the land from prohibited property list and register the same. 6
9. It is very strange, even after the order dated 16.11.2019 passed by the District Level Committee so far no consequential action has been taken by the Respondents No. 5 and 6 to delete the lands from the dotted land list and the land is not deleted from the prohibited property list under Section 22 (A) of the Act. When particular statue prescribes a particular procedure to be followed, the respondents being the public servants are supposed to act in accordance with the same and discharge the statutory duty cast upon them. Particularly when a time frame is fixed they are bound to follow the same. But the respondents are not taking any steps to comply with the orders for the reasons best known to them.
10. In view of the above discussion and following the orders passed by this court in W.P.No. 12515 of 2020 dated 31.07.2020 there shall be a direction to the respondents to delete the petitioner's land an extent of Ac.1.05 cents, situated in Sy.No. 575/2 of Kanapuru Bit-II Village, Venkatachalam Mandal, SPSR Nellore District from the prohibited property list maintained under Section 22-A of the Act and receive the proposed sale deed to be presented by the petitioner and register and release the same as per the provisions of the Registration Act, within a period of six (06) weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
11. With the above direction, the Writ Petition is disposed of. No costs. Consequently, miscellaneous applications pending, if any, shall stand closed.
__________________________ JUSTICE M. GANGA RAO Date: 02.12.2020 KK 7 THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE M. GANGA RAO WRIT PETITION No.21836 OF 2020 Date: 02.12.2020 KK