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2020 Supreme(AP) 193
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATHI
M. SATYANARAYANA MURTHY, J.
M. Changamma - Appellant
Versus
State Of Andhra Pradesh - Respondent
Writ Petition No. 15595 of 2019
Decided on : 24-02-2020
Advocate Appeared:
P. Ramabhoopal Reddy, Advocate
Point Of Law: As per Section 5(3) of the Act, duty casts upon the third respondent/Tahsildar to issue a notice in writing to all persons whose names are entered in the record of rights and who are interested in or affected by the amendment as per Section 5(3) of the Act and a copy of the amendment and notice shall also be published in the prescribed manner
Headnote:
Constitution of India - Article 226 - Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Area) Estates Land Act, 1908 - Section 20 - writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, to declare the action of the respondents in tying to interfere with the petitioner's peaceful possession and enjoyment of the agriculture land without following due process of law as illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction – Held, It is clear that the entries allegedly made or amended, deleting the name of this petitioner as against Sy.No.46-5 of Varadaiahpalem Village & Mandal is in contravention to Section 5(1) & (3) of Act No.26 of 1971 r/w Rules 15 & 16 of the Andhra Pradesh Record of Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Rules, 1989. Besides that, since it is a communal land, as admitted by the third respondent in the counter, it cannot be assigned to the landless poor, in view of the bar under B.S.O 15(4)of Andhra Pradesh Board Revenue Standing Orders. As alleged by the respondent and even according to Section 53 of the Panchayat Raj Act, when the land is classified as grazing land, all public roads in any village, other than National Highways, State High Ways and Roads vesting in Zilla Parishad or Mandal Parishad shall vest in the Gram Panchayat – Writ petition is allowed
Facts of the Case:
Petitioner was assigned agricultural land in an extent of Ac.3-00 cents in Sy.No.46-5 of Varadaiahpalem Village and Mandal, Chittoor District, vide "Possession Certificate Proceedings" Rc.No.152/4/1408 dated 12.01.2008 and since then, the petitioner is in peaceful possession and enjoyment of the same by raising paddy and other crops. The petitioner also raised Jeelugu plantation which is good as manure to raise paddy crop. The revenue department also issued Pattadar Passbook No.237 and Title Deed No.237 in favour of the petitioner and the petitioner has been paying land revenue to the revenue department
Finding of the Court:
It is clear that the entries allegedly made or amended, deleting the name of this petitioner as against Sy.No.46-5 of Varadaiahpalem Village & Mandal is in contravention to Section 5(1) & (3) of Act No.26 of 1971 r/w Rules 15 & 16 of the Andhra Pradesh Record of Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Rules, 1989. Besides that, since it is a communal land, as admitted by the third respondent in the counter, it cannot be assigned to the landless poor, in view of the bar under B.S.O 15(4)of Andhra Pradesh Board Revenue Standing Orders. As alleged by the respondent and even according to Section 53 of the Panchayat Raj Act, when the land is classified as grazing land, all public roads in any village, other than National Highways, State High Ways and Roads vesting in Zilla Parishad or Mandal Parishad shall vest in the Gram Panchayat.
Result: Writ petition is allowed
JUDGMENT :
M. Satyanarayana Murthy, J.
This writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, to declare the action of the respondents in tying to interfere with the petitioner's peaceful possession and enjoyment of the agriculture land admeasuring Ac.3-00 cents in Sy.No.46-5, Varadaiahpalem Village and Mandal, Chittoor District, without following due process of law as illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction.
2. The petitioner was assigned agricultural land in an extent of Ac.3-00 cents in Sy.No.46-5 of Varadaiahpalem Village and Mandal, Chittoor District, vide "Possession Certificate Proceedings" Rc.No.152/4/1408 dated 12.01.2008 and since then, the petitioner is in peaceful possession and enjoyment of the same by raising paddy and other crops. The petitioner also raised Jeelugu plantation which is good as manure to raise paddy crop. The revenue department also issued Pattadar Passbook No.237 and Title Deed No.237 in favour of the petitioner and the petitioner has been paying land revenue to the revenue department since 2008.
3. In the revenue records, the name of the petitioner was mutated in Form -1B which disclosed that the property was assigned to this petitioner by issuing D-Form Patta and Form-1B, obtained through website on 12.06.2019 at 17:59:56 from I.P. No.59:88:217:194. Though, the online entries are in favour of the petitioner, recently, subsequently they were removed from the website for the reason best known to the respondents. Further, the petitioner obtained pattadar adangal/pahani on 03.12.2014 which clearly shows that this petitioner is in possession of Ac.3-00 cents agricultural land in Sy.No.46-5 of Varadaiahapalem Village and Mandal and she is the D-Form Patta holder and possessor of the land. It is further contended that, Patta/Possession Certificate dated 12.01.2008 clearly shows that the land is assigned to the petitioner for the purpose of agriculture and the petitioner has no right to alienate the property in favour of any third parties. But, till date, it is not the case of the respondents that the petitioner violated the terms and conditions of D-Form Patta.
4. While the matter stood thus, Respondent Nos. 3 & 4 highhandedly, without issuing any notice or following due process of law, are trying to dispossess this petitioner and in that process, they came to the property on 24.09.2019 along with men and machines, forcibly tried to dispossess the petitioner, this petitioner with great difficulty resisted the same.
5. The petitioner came to know that, due to political influence in the village, Respondent Nos. 3 & 4 are trying to dispossess this petitioner from the land without following due process of law. The land is purely agricultural land and the respondents have nothing to do with the land and it cannot be assigned to anyone and that, change of entries in the revenue records is contrary to the procedure, if any, and therefore, requested to issue a direction declaring the action of the respondents in tying to interfere with the petitioner's peaceful possession and enjoyment of the agriculture land admeasuring Ac.3-00 cents in Sy.No.46-5, Varadaiahpalem Village and Mandal, Chittoor District.
6. The petitioner produced pattadar passbook, title deed and adangal/pahani copies to establish that this petitioner is in possession and enjoyment of the property and on the strength of those documents, he requested to issue a direction stated supra.
7. The third respondent/Tahsildar filed counter affidavit stating that, verification of ROR-1B/webland entries reveals that the writ petitioner has been issued pattadar passbook for an extent of Ac.0-32 cents only in Sy.No.5/11 of Varadaiahpalem Village vide ROR-1B Khatha No.237. Simultaneously, under the same khatha, fake entry was made for an extent of Ac.3-00 in Sy.No.46/5 of Varadaiahpalem Village during the year 2014 and after noticing the error, the same was rectified by removing the bogus/fake entry during the year 2017 by the then Tahsilda
