Judgment

L.M. SHARMA, J.

(1) BOTH these appeals have been filed by persons in whose favour the State government made allotment of agricultural lands on the assumption that they were surplus lands within the meaning of the Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act, 1973, hereinafter referred to as the Act. The respondents claim that they have been in possession of the lands as tenants for a long period, and the original land owners had no right to surrender the lands under the provisions of the Act They assert that they had no information of the steps taken by the aforesaid alleged land owners and the orders passed thereon, and that they (tenant-respondents) continued in possession throughout. The lands, therefore, could not have been treated as surplus and the State government had no authority to settle the same with the allottee-appellants.

(2) THE allottee-appellants have denied the claim of the respondents and have pleaded that after the Act came into operation, the land owners made a declaration under S. 8 of the Act in April 1975 on the basis of which excess area was determined under S. 9 of the Act on 27/11/1975, following which the dispu