(BPR, J)

The petitioners, who are the tribals, filed this writ under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, inter alia, seeking a Mandamus to declare para-3 of the Circular Memo No.889/RH1/99, dated 08-07-1999 issued by the Housing (RH) Department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, as illegal and null and void.

2. The petitioners, who claim to belong to Koya Dora tribe and Kondareddy tribe respectively, found fault with the aforesaid circular, of which the relevant para is hereafter extracted, and complain that it makes serious enroots into the substantive and vested rights of the scheduled tribes which are provided under the provisions of the A.P. Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulations, 1959 apart from para-5(2)(a) of the fifth schedule to the Constitution of India. For convenience sake, the impugned portion of the circular reads as follows:

“In respect of the eligible non-tribal beneficiaries who are in possession of house-sites in the village site/abadies but cannot readily establish his legal possession, there is a difficulty in mortgaging such houses along with the houses constructed thereon in favour of the A.P. State Housing Corporation Ltd., as security