JUDGMENT :

Jagdish Singh Khehar, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. The present controversy admittedly relates to 1 acre and 80-1/2 cents of agricultural land. Out of the above land, 33-1/2 cents is in Survey No.123/5, and the remaining 1 acre and 47 cents is in Survey No.129/2, of the revenue estate of Sangam Agraharam Village in Vangana Mandal, Srikakulam District, in the State of Andhra Pradesh. It is the case of the appellant before this Court, that he is a poor landless person, and that, his family has been in occupation of the above land for many years. In fact, it is the appellant’s case that his forefathers had been cultivating the above land, which eventually passed on to him, and members of his joint family.

3. The Rent Reduction Act was applied to Sangam Agraharam Village vide G.O.M.S.No.3724 dated 31.03.1950. As indicated above, the land in question was a part of Sangam Agraharam village. Sangam village was declared as an ‘Inam Estate’, within the meaning of Section 3(2)(d) of the Madras Estates Land Act. Eventually the same, was abolished through the Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Area) Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari), Act 1948 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the 1948 Act’).

4.