Andhra Pradesh High Court
Judges : V.V.S.RAO
Vemula Satyavathi - Appellant
Versus
District Collector, Krishna, Machilipatnam - Respondent
Decided On : 01-09-03
A. P. Assigned Lands (Prohibition of transfers) Act, 1977 – Section 3 – A. P. Land reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) act, 1973 – Section 14 – A. P. Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Rules, 1974 – Rule 10 – Liable – Mortgage – Disposal of land – Alienate land – Entitled to transfer – Petitioner is aggrieved by endorsement dated issued by Mandal Revenue Officer – It is case of petitioner that her husband was assigned an extent of Acs. of Potepally Village on payment of consideration – After his death petitioner is cultivating land – When petitioner approached authorities for mutation of revenue record it was refused and therefore she filed a suit being O. S. on file of Court of Principal which was decreed on directing District collector to alter 10 (1) account and mutate name of petitioner and enter in revenue records – Mandal revenue Officer therefore passed endorsement as follows contents of petition seeking for Deletion of Entry of assignment of land in R. S. cents and R. S. cents assigned in favour of on d form Patta is examined in detail – Petitioner is informed that surplus land assigned on d patta is heritable but not alienable to Third Party – Hence, Smt. Vemula Satyavathi, W/o. satyanarayana is therefore informed that request of petitioner is negative – Held, Clause (2) of Para 2 of BSO 15 defines landless poor person as one who owns not more than two and half acres of wet or five acres of dry land and is also poor – By very definition, a person who is not poor, but is landless, is not eligible for assignment of land – Indeed rule 10 (1) of Rules obliges Thasildar to allot surplus land to displaced tenants having no land, landless poor persons, and other poor agriculturists in that order – A person, therefore, must be poor before seeking assignment of surplus land and also must be landless person – In this background, reliance placed by learned Counsel for petitioners on Rule 10 of Rules in support of his contention that BSO 15 has no application, is misconceived and cannot be accepted – Writ Petition is Dismissed
( 1 ) THE petitioner is aggrieved by endorsement dated 22. 10. 1999 issued by the Mandal Revenue Officer, Machilipatnam. It is the case of the petitioner that her husband was assigned an extent of Acs. 1. 19 in R. S. No. 81/2 of Potepally Village on payment of consideration. After his death the petitioner is cultivating the land. When the petitioner approached the authorities for mutation of the revenue record it was refused and therefore she filed a suit being O. S. No. 203 of 1991 on the file of the Court of Principal district Munsif, Machilipatnam which was decreed on 10. 8. 1994 directing the District collector to alter 10 (1) account and mutate the name of the petitioner and enter in revenue records. The Government s appeal being A. S. No. 101 of 1994 was also dismissed on 22. 8. 1997. Therefore, mutation was carried out. After the land was mutated in the name of petitioner, she decided to alienate the property to third parties and presented a sale deed before the third respondent, who by endorsement dated 23. 8. 1999 declined to register the document on the ground that the land is registered in revenue records as assigned land and that unless there is permission from the District collector the same cannot be registered. In those circumstances, the petitioner again approached the Mandal Revenue Officer with a request to delete the land from the list of assigned land since assignment was made on the basis of consideration. The Mandal revenue Officer therefore passed the endorsement as follows: the contents of the petition of Smt. Vemula satyavathi, W/o (Late) Vemula satyanarayana of Nandigama Village of pedana Mandal seeking for Deletion of Entry of assignment of land in R. S. No. 49/1. B ac. 1. 17 cents and R. S. No. 89/2 Ac. 0. 80 cents assigned in favour of Vemula Satyanarayana s/o. (Late) Rattaiah of Pothepalli on d form Patta is examined in detail. The petitioner is informed that the surplus land assigned on d patta is "heritable but not alienable to Third Party". Hence, Smt. Vemula Satyavathi, W/o. (Late) satyanarayana is therefore informed that the request of the petitioner is negatived.
( 2 ) THE writ petition was opposed by the respondents inter alia on the ground D-form patta granted to the husband of the petitioner contains a clause that the land is heritable, but not alienable. Therefore the petitioner is not entitled to transfer or alienate the land in favour of third parties.
( 3 ) THE learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that as the sale price of the land was collected from husband of the petitioner, the petitioner has absolute right to alienate the properties and Section 3 of the A. P. Assigned Lands (Prohibition of transfers) Act, 1977 has no application to the facts of the case. This is refuted by the learned Government Pleader for assignment Sri Vijaya Kumar placing reliance on Section 14 of the A. P. Land reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) act, 1973 (for short, the Land Reforms act ).
( 4 ) IT is not denied before me that the petitioner s husband was assigned land which was declared surplus under the Land Reforms Act. Therefore, the assignment is subjected to conditions mentioned in D-form patta as well as section 14 of the Land Reforms Act. Section 14 of the Land Reforms Act insofar as it is relevant reads as under: 14. Disposal of land vested in Government: (4) Any transfer of the land under this section shall be subject to (I) the condition that the land shall not be alienated by the transferee by way of sale, gift, mortgage, lease or in any manner whatsoever otherwise than by way of mortgage in favour of the government, a Bank or a Co-operative society, including a Land Mortgage bank; and (ii) the condition that where the land transferred is an orchard, the transferee shall continue to maintain such land as an orchard; and (iii) such other condition as may be prescribed.
( 5 ) ANY alienation effected or other act done in respect of any land in violation of the condi
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