JUDGMENT

V.S. Sirpurkar, J. —

1. A Judgment by the High Court allowing a Civil Revision Petition, setting aside the order passed by the Land Reforms Appellate Tribunal-cum-II Additional District Judge of Ranga Reddy District (hereinafter called ‘the Appellate Tribunal’ for short) is in challenge before us. The High Court while allowing the Revision, recognized the rights of the respondents herein as the protected tenants and further held that they become absolute owners of the land by purchasing the land in respect of which they were protected tenants. As a sequel, the High Court held that the land held by them could not be declared as a surplus land and could not be distributed as such. Before we approach the disputed questions, a factual background would be necessary.

2. Five respondents, namely, (1) Shri T. Yadagiri Reddy, (2) Shri T. Bal Reddy, (3) Shri T. Janardhan Reddy, (4) Shri T. Mohan Reddy, (5) Shri T. Satyanarayana Reddy are the sons of Late Shri T. Papi Reddy. According to them, the said Late Shri T. Papi Reddy was a protected tenant from (1) Late Shri Khaja Shakhir Hussain, (2) Shri Khaja Nasir Hussain, (3) Smt. Razia Sultana W/o Mir Sadath Ali. It is the case of the