Velamala Jagadeeswara Rao, v. Prl.Secy., Revenue Dept., State Of A.P.,

HON'BLE SRI JUSTI CE A.RAMALI NGESWARA RAO Writ Petition No.3945 of 2018 Order:

The petitioner states that he is the absolute owner and possessor of the agricultural land of an extent of Ac.1-66 cents in Survey No.412/2 and Ac.1-60 cents in Survey No.413/2 situated at Singupuram village, Srikakulam Mandal and District, having purchased the same from his vendor under an agreement of sale dated 06.02.2016. His vendor was granted D-Form patta for the said lands under Ex-Servicemen quota through proceedings dated 31.09.2001 and 05.03.2002. His vendor was granted pattadar passbook and title deeds after following the procedure contemplated under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 1971 and the rules framed thereunder and his name was mutated in online web land revenue records.

When the petitioner approached the third respondent for registration of the sale deed in respect of the said lands, he refused to register the same on the ground that the said lands were included in the list of prohibited properties under Section 22A (1)(a) to (e) of the Registration Act as per the Notification of the fourth respondent dated 19.09.2017. Challenging the same, the present Writ Petition is filed. This Court in Vinjamuri Rajagopala Chary v. State of A.P.1 considered the said issue and held as follows: 35.

1 Further, as noticed earlier the State Government is empowered either suo motu or on application to consider the grievances against inclusion of any property in the prohibitory list under Section 22-A of Registration Act and is also empowered to de-notify either in full or in part the notification issued under sub-section (2). In our opinion, the redressal mechanism is available only with respect to notifications published relating to the properties falling under clause (e) of Section 22-A. Hence, any grievance of the parties with reference to the properties covered by clauses (a) to (d) will have to be questioned by the aggrieved parties only by appropriate proceedings before a competent Court and the adjudication by such Court would be final.

concerned, the redressal mechanism under sub-section (4) of Section 22-A would be able to effectively address the grievance provided the mechanism thereunder is effective, expeditious, fair, and judicious. Thus, in order to make an effective redressal mechanism, we deem it appropriate to direct the respective Governments of both the States to constitute a Committee or establish a Forum within time frame, may be comprising of Principal Secretary of Revenue, Director of Survey and Land Records and a retired Judicial Officer of the rank of a District Judge which shall meet periodically to consider the grievances of the persons affected by the notifications.

The Committee shall be empowered to examine relevant records and then pass a reasoned order either accepting or rejecting the grievance by either confirming/deleting/modifying any such property from the notified list of properties. In our view, such orders passed by the Committee shall be binding on the State as well as on the aggrieved person and in the event of any of them being aggrieved thereby, they shall have to approach a competent Court of Law for redressal of their grievance.

Now, it is stated that a committee is constituted for dealing with the issues relating to deletion of properties which were included under Section 22(1) of the Act and in view of the same, the petitioner is given liberty to submit an appropriate representation to the said committee for deletion of the above property under Section 22(1) of the Act. As and when such representation is filed, the committee shall consider the same and pass appropriate orders thereon within a period of three (3) months from the date of filing such representation.

The Writ Petition is, accordingly, disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.

As a sequel thereto, the miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in this writ petition shall stand closed.

________________________ A. RAMALI NGESWARA RAO, J Date: 08.02.2018 Nsr