Judgment

S.B. Majmudar, J.-Leave granted. We have heard learned counsel for the parties finally. This appeal arises out of the decision rendered by a Division Bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh upsetting the majority view arrived at by two members of the Special Court function­ing under the provisions of the A.P. Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 1982 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’). The appellants are the authorities functioning under the said Act. They had moved the Special Court on the ground that the respondents were in illegal possession and were land grabbers of a plot of land being plot No. 9 situated at Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad city. That application was moved in 1991. The Full Bench of the Special Court consisting of the Chairman and the two Members decided the said application after hearing the parties and after considering the evidence led by them and came to the conclusion that though the appellants had established their title to plot No. 9 it was adversely possessed by the respondents and, therefore, no relief could be granted to the appellants in the said proceedings. That decision was rendered on 31st October 1995. An application for review under Section 17A of the Act was moved by the appellants before the Special Court. In the said application two grounds were sought to be relied upon - (i) that the Special Court had relied upon Ex. B-12 which was not legally admissible on the record of the case; and (ii) that the decision rendered by the Court suffered from an error of fact. The said Review Petition was heard by the Full Bench of the Special Court. The learned Chairman who presided over the Bench, took the view that there was no question of invoking the review jurisdiction and, therefore, he was inclined to dismiss the said proceedings. However the other two Members took a contrary view and held that the order sought to be reviewed required re-consideration and, therefore, they were inclined to re-hear the matter by granting the review application. Accordingly by majority Review Petition was allowed. That resulted in a writ petition on behalf of the respondents before the High Court.

2. The Division Bench of the High Court by the impugned order dated 25th November 1996 held that the review jurisdiction was wrongly sought to be invoked by the appellants and review proceedings were not maintainable. It was held that the first ground, namely, Ex. B-12 was inadmissible in evidence, could not be sustained for supporting the review petition as it was admitted in the evidence earlier without any objection. On the second ground it was held by the High Court that the earlier judgment on 31st October 1995 was based on the relevant facts, both oral and documentary, namely Ex. B-12 and B-13 and B-15 which were earlier judgments of the Special Court wherein it was held that for plot No. 9 situated at Jubilee Hills the State authorities had no title and the plot was a fully paid up plot belonging to the erstwhile occupants and consequently the earlier proceedings filed under the very same Act by the same appellants seeking eviction of alleged unauthorised occupants of this very plot were dismissed. It is also pertinent to note that nothing was brought out on the record of these proceedings to show that the earlier decisions of the very same Court at Ex. B-13 and B-15 which were relied upon by it while passing the order dated 31st October 1995, were ever carried higher up or were sub judice before any other higher authority. In fact such was not even the ground on which review was sought by the appellants. The High Court, therefore, took the view that when the earlier decision was rendered on consideration of all relevant facts and on appreciation of evidence, both oral and documentary, it could not be said that the said decision suffered from any patent error of fact which could have enabled the appellants to seek review of the said order under Section 17A of the Act. Consequently the writ petition was allowe