Avulakonda Annapurneswari v. The State Of Andhra Pradesh

THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTI CE A.RAMALI NGESWARA RAO Writ Petition No.43895 of 2017 Order:

The case of the petitioner is that the land in an extent of Ac.1-20 cents, situated in Survey No.202/8 of Panagal Lands, Srikalahasthi Mandal, Chittoor District, originally belonged to one Saadhu Narayana Giri Swamulavaru. The Government during the survey operations from 1958 to 1960 mutated his name as owner in fair Adangal (Settlement Register). The said Saadhu Narayana Giri Swamulavaru, during is life time, executed a registered Will Deed dated 26.03.1976 bequeathing the said land in favour of the petitioner. He died on 07.09.1977. Since then, the petitioner has been in possession and enjoyment of the said land and the revenue authorities mutated her name in the revenue records and issued pattadar passbook and title deeds.

When the petitioner wants to dispose of the said property and approached the fourth respondent seeking information relating to the market value, she was informed that in view of the letter addressed by the fifth respondent dated 05.07.2016 the land cannot be registered as the same was included in the list of prohibited properties. Challenging the same, the petitioner filed the present Writ Petition.

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 1 2016 (1) ALT 550 (FB)

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. Further, so far as notified properties falling under clause (e) are 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. In view of the same, the petitioner is given liberty to approach the said grievance redressal committee for appropriate relief by making proper application. At this stage, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the grievance redressal committee was not constituted and there is no one to redress the grievance of the petitioner.

If no grievance redressal committee is constituted as directed by this Court, the petitioner is given liberty to submit proper representation to the District Collector, Chittoor District, within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and the District Collector is directed to pass appropriate orders on the grievance expressed by the petitioner, within a period of four weeks thereafter.

The Writ Petition is, accordingly, disposed of. Miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in this writ petition shall stand closed. There shall be no order as to costs.

________________________ A. RAMALI NGESWARA RAO, J Date: 23.01.2018 Note:

Office to mark copy of this order to the District Collector, Chittoor District.

(B/O) Nsr