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2003 Supreme(AP) 1206

Andhra Pradesh High Court
Judges : G.YETHIRAJULU
Harijana Bazarappa - Appellant
Versus
H.Chakarala Ranganna - Respondent
Decided On : 10-14-03

Headnote:AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act, 1977 - Sections 2(1), 3 and 4 - Assigned Lands - prohibition on Transfer - Landless poor persons to whom assignment were made cannot transfer the assigned lands and transferee cannot acquire such lands either by purchase, gift, lease, mortgage, exchange or otherwise except for purpose of mortgaging of property with Government of Cooperative Society for getting loan

       Held : In the above judgments the learned Single Judges did not specifically deal with sub-section (4) of section 3 of the Act, which prohibits the sale of assigned land in execution of a decree or order of a Civil Court or of any award or order of any other authority When there is a statutory bar to bring the assigned land to sale, it is immaterial whether there is a condition prohibiting the transfer of the property or not It is for the execution Court to examine the relevant documents and to come to a conclusion whether the properties that are being brought for sale are assigned lands or not and pass appropriate orders in the execution petition The sale to a landless poor person is also prohibited subsequent to the Act came into force, either through Court auction or private sale

G. YETHIRAJULU, J.

( 1 ) THIS revision petition is filed against the order of the Senior Civil Judge, adoni in E. P. No. 20 of 2000 in O. S. No. 60 of 1995 dated 20-12-2001.

( 2 ) THE revision petitioner brought a house property and a landed property of the judgment debtor for sale through the above execution petition. The judgment debtor pleaded that they are the lands assigned to him by the Government, therefore, they cannot be brought to sale under Court auction. The Execution Court while going through the xerox copies of the assignment deeds observed that the judgment-debtor has not filed the original assignment orders to verify whether the land was assigned to him subject to the condition of non-alienability. The Court while further observing that those questions of fact have to be proved by evidence including the plea of the judgment- debtor that he is a small farmer and the debt stood discharged and regarding the correctness of the decree-holder s claim etc, posted the matter for enquiry on 2-1-2002. The revision petitioner being aggrieved by the order of the lower Court preferred this revision petition contending that the lower court ought not to have passed the said order and should have conducted the auction for the sale of the property.

( 3 ) THE learned Counsel for the revision petitioner submitted that even if it is considered that properties which are proposed to be brought to sale are the lands assigned by the Government, unless there is a clause that the property is inalienable and not transferable permanently, there cannot be any bar for bringing those properties in court auction sale. The learned Counsel for the revision petitioner relied on a judgment of the Single Judge of this Court in Rambagh satyanarayana v. Joint Collector, R. R. District, Hyderabad, 2000 (2) ALD 433, wherein this Court while considering the scope of Section 2 (1) of the Andhra Pradesh assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) act, 1977 (for short the Act ) held that when there is no condition imposed in the order of assignment prohibiting transfer of land, the land is not assigned land, and therefore, the subsequent transfer is not invalid. The learned Single Judge laid stress for the presence of a condition that the assigned land is not transferable. There is another judgment of this Court rendered by another Single Judge in Vaka Punnamma v. Yadavali Jurala Narasimham, 2001 (1) ald 306, wherein this Court while considering the scope of Section 4 of the act held that simply because ten years elapsed from the date of assignment of a land to the judgment debtor, it cannot be said that he acquired a saleable interest in the land, therefore, the land cannot be sold in execution of a decree. SECTION 3 of the Act reads of follows: prohibition of transfer of assigned lands : (1) Where before or after the commencement of this Act any land has been assigned by the Government to a landless poor person for purposes of cultivation or as a house site then, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other law for the time being in force or in the deed to transfer or other document relating to such land, it shall not be transferred and shall be deemed never to have been transferred; and accordingly no right or title in such assigned land shall vest in any person acquiring the land by such transfer. (2) No landless poor person shall transfer any assigned land, and no person shall acquire any assigned land, either by purchase, gift, lease, mortgage, exchange or otherwise. (3) Any transfer or acquisition made in contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be deemed to be null and void. (4) The provisions of this section shall apply to any transaction of the nature referred to in sub-section (2) in execution of a decree or order of a Civil Court or of any award or order of any other authority. (5) Nothing in this section shall apply to an assigned land which was purchased by a landless poor person in good faith and fo




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