1. This writ petition is filed to declare that the house plots of the petitioners in Sy. No. 294/1 situated at Madhurawada, Chinegadili Mandal, Madhurwada Panchayati, Visakhapatnam are saved by Section-3 (5) of Andhra Pradesh Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act, 1977 (for brevity “the Act”) and a consequential direction was sought to set aside the proceedings of the third respondent-Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority in Rc.No.580/06/HDT, dated 29.01.1998, resuming the plots of the petitioners, as illegal and arbitrary.

2. The brief facts of the case, so far as they are relevant for disposal of the writ petition are that a piece of Government land in Survey No.294/1, admeasuring an extent of Acs. 3-96 cents situated at Madhurawada village in Visakhpatnam District was assigned to one K. Rudra Prasad Reddy, in the year 1982; the said assignee K.Rudra Prasad Reddy sold away the said land to one G. Hanumantha Rao under the registered sale deed, dated 27.3.1985; the said Hanumantha Rao prepared a private lay out and divided the said land into 60 plots of house sites and sold few of them in the year 1994-95 and executed a G.P.A. in favour of one M. Venkatapathi Raju for selling the remaining plots; the petitioners purchased the said plots from G. Hanumantha Rao in good faith for a valuable consideration; the Mandal Revenue Officer, Visakhapatnam (Rural) issued a notice on 4.4.1997 in Form-I under Rule 3 of the A.P. Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Rules, 1977 to the petitioners directly, to show cause as to why the petitioners should not be evicted from the said land; the petitioners filed a representation to the Collector, Visakhapatnam requesting to regularize their constructions; aggrieved by the inaction of the Mandal Revenue Officer, Writ Petition No.19928 of 1997 was filed and the same was disposed of on 1.10.1997 directing the Mandal Revenue Officer to consider the objections/replies submitted by the petitioners and pass appropriate orders; pursuant to the said directions, the petitioners approached the Mandal Revenue Officer and adduced oral as well as documentary evidence; and the Mandal Revenue Officer, without considering their objections passed the impugned orders, dated 29.1.1998 resuming the lands of the petitioners.

3. The writ petition was admitted on 9.3.2006 and the writ petition was dismissed as against the Fourth respondent, G. Hanumantha Rao, for non service of notice on 11.8.2011. No petition was filed seeking restoration of the writ petition against the 4th respondent.

4. No interim direction whatsoever has been passed in the writ petition.

5. Counter affidavit has been filed by the Tahsildar, Visakhapatnam (Rural) inter alia stating that Sy.No.294 admeasuring to an extent of Acrs. 7.80 Cents is originally classified as Gayalu; subsequently the said survey numbers is further sub divided into two sub divisions; as per the office records, the Sy.No.294/1 is having an extent of Acs. 3.76 cents and is originally assigned to K.Rudra Prasad Reddy under landless poor category; the original assignee of the Sy.No.294/2 sold away the assigned land to other persons, by violating the provisions of the Act; the original assignees have violated the conditions of the assignment, namely; “ i) the lands assigned shall be brought under direct cultivation within three years from the date of grant, (ii) the cultivation shall be done by the members of the family of the assigned, (iii) the lands assigned to beneficiaries is heritable but not alienable”; in view of the same, the Tahsildar, Visakhapatnam (Rural) cancelled D-patta by following the assignment rules; any transactions of the assigned lands by way of sale, lease, gift and mortgage are void under Section 3 (2), 3(3) of the A.P. Assigned Lands (POT) Act, 1977; the said transactions were effected after introduction of the Act; in accordance with the orders of this Court in W.P. No. 19928 of 1997, sufficient opportunity was given to the petitioners