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38. Thus, normally, a land is granted to eligible persons if it is identified and is available for disposal and such a grant would require reservation of at least 50% of the land for persons belonging to the SC/ST. It is only when the lands are identified, can it be granted to persons belonging to SC/ST. It is therefore only these

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NC: 2025:KHC:998 lands which really be considered as a land which is granted to persons belonging to SC/ST. It is to be kept in mind that 50% of the lands are set apart for being granted to persons of a particular weaker section of the society i.e., persons belonging to SC/ST and these lands cannot be granted to any other class of people and will have to be necessarily granted to persons belonging to SC/ST.

46. Since the illegality of every person in possession is sought to be regularised, the rule relating to the sale for a specified period on such persons would have a completely different dimension as compared to a land granted to a person belonging to SC/ST, since lands granted under the land grant rules for SC/ST was with the intent to ensure that they get out of the poor financial and social position that they are in, whereas in the latter cases, the wrongful act of a person, who is already in possession and obviously dependent on it, is being legitimised.

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NC: 2025:KHC:998 grant, as originally envisaged at the time of the grant, was sought to be achieved.

52. The preamble of the PTCL Act also makes it clear that the Act was to provide for prohibition of certain lands granted by the Government to persons belonging to SC/ST and for restoration of lands which had already been granted to persons belonging to SC/ST. Thus, transfer of not all lands granted to SC/ST was sought to be prohibited and only certain lands was sought to be prohibited and further, the Act was to ensure restoration of lands already granted to persons belonging to SC/ST.

58. If a land is granted because a person is in unauthorised possession, it would be a grant because he was in unauthorised possession and not because he belongs to SC/ST. If the person in unauthorised possession, incidentally, happens to be a person belonging to SC/ST, that grant of land cannot be construed as a land which has been granted because he belongs to the SC/ST.

59. To reiterate, in order for a land to be a granted land as defined under the PTCL, the principal cause for the grant should be the fact that the person being granted the land belongs to the SC/ST. If a person is being granted land under the general provisions which are applicable to all