Common Judgment:

The question that arises for consideration in these two writ petitions is: whether the prohibition contained under Section 5 of the A.P. Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfer) Act, 1977 (for short ‘the Act’), applies to the lands, which were brought to sale by a Co-operative Society, mentioned in Section 6 of the Act, for the redemption of mortgage, made in its favour.

Some of the villagers of Pagali, of Earpedu Mandal, and Udamalapadu, of Srikalahasthi Mandal, were assigned Government lands in various survey numbers. Few of them have raised loans from primary agricultural cooperative societies of the area, affiliated to District Cooperative Central Bank Limited, Chittoor. As a security for repayment, they mortgaged the lands, assigned to them. Since the loans remained unpaid, recovery certificates were obtained from the competent authority under Section 71 of the A.P. Cooperative Societies Act (for short ‘the APCS Act’) by the creditor society. Thereafter, the properties were put to sale. The petitioners have purchased the lands that were brought to sale. The particulars are as under:

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After the sales in favour of the petitioners became final, their