The petitioner claims to be the absolute owner and in possession of an extent of Acs. 2-01 cents in Sy. No. 29; Acs. 5-40 cents in Sy. Nos. 239/9 to 20; Acs. 6- 00 cents in Sy. No. 282/1 (old 93/4); Acs. 7-82 cents in Sy. Nos. 277/1 to 11 (old 26/3 & 4); Acs. 17-22 cents in Sy. Nos. 93/2 to 38 and Acs. 19-09 cents in Sy. Nos. 26/1 and 2, totaling Acs. 57-54 cents of Gollapalem village, Sabbavaram Mandal, Visakhapatnam, having purchased the same from his vendors, namely Garlapati Ramesh and others, under six registered sale deeds dated 25.08.2003. The petitioner states that originally his vendors were given ryotwari pattas under Section 4 of Andhra Inams (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1956 in respect of the above lands.

The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner having agreed to sell the aforementioned lands owned by him to one Sri. G. Goutham and others, having received the sale consideration, executed sale deeds in their favour. After executing the sale deeds, when he approached respondent No.1 to ascertain the procedure for getting the sale deeds registered, respondent No.1 informed him that unless VA-3 Adangals relating to the lands covered by the sale deeds, 'No Objection Certificate' from the MRO in case Pattadar Passbooks are not available, are produced, the sale deeds presented for registration, will not be received and registered. Immediately, the petitioner requested respondent No.1 to furnish the said information in writing, but respondent No.1 refused to furnish the same, and as such, petitioner made an application dated 11.08.2007 to respondent No.1 under the provisions of Section 6 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 requesting him to furnish the said information. Acting on the said application, respondent No.1 passed orders dated 13.08.2007, enclosing thereto, copies of the Instructions issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Visakhapatnam, in Rc. No.1984/2004, dated 02.02.2005, reiterating the minutes of the meting of the Joint Collector, Visakhapatnam, held on 05.11.2004, communicated vide Rc. No. 310/2000-F3, dated 08.11.2004, and communicated the same to the petitioner.

He submitted that the Government of Andhra Pradesh vide Memo No. 20708/Regn (1)/2007, dated 04.05.2007, had accorded permission to the Commissioner & Inspector General of Stamps and Registration, to issue instructions to the registering officers in the State to exempt the executants/claimants from production of Pattadar Passbooks/title deeds at the time of registration, for a period of one year from 01.04.2007 to 31.03.2008. Despite the said Memo of the Government, respondent No.1 is following the instructions issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Visakhapatnam, issued in Rc. No.1984/2004, dated 02.02.2005, whereunder vendors were required to produce the copies of the extracts of VA3 Adangals, Record of Rights, IB Register, Patadar Passbooks/title deeds issued by the Mandal Revenue Officer concerned, for registering the sale of any agricultural lands.

He submitted that when a document is presented for registration, respondent No.1, namely the registering authority, under the provisions of the Registration Act, 1908 (for short 'the Registration Act'), is not empowered go into title disputes, except to the extent of verifying the genuineness of the persons who are party to the document that has been presented for registration, has no other option, but to receive and register the document, and the action of respondent No.1 in requiring the petitioner to produce VA3 Adangals, Form No.1-B, Pattadar Passbooks/Title Deeds and 'No Objection Certificate' from the Mandal Revenue Officer concerned, etc., for registering the sale deed executed by him, is illegal and arbitrary, and more so when such insistence of documents, which is based on the Circulars issued by the Joint Collector and the Revenue Divisional Officer, runs contrary to the orders issued by the Government in Memo No. 20708/Regn(1)/2007