IMPORTANT POINT
The court established that transactions involving land purchased in good faith before the enactment of the Act are exempt from its prohibitions, thereby protecting the rights of the purchasers.

JUDGMENT :

R. Raghunandan Rao, J.

1. As the issues raised in all these writ appeals are one and the same, they are being disposed of by way of this common judgment.

2. Land admeasuring Ac.4.61 cents, situated in Sy. No. 489/2 of Avilala Village, Tirupati Rural Mandal, Chittoor District, had been assigned to Sri P. Ramakrishna Reddy and Sri. P. Vasudeva Reddy by the then Tahasildar, Chandragiri, under Board Standing Order No. 15. This land was sold by these two assignees. One Smt. K. Lalithamma purchased Ac.2.30½ cents vide document No. 3736/1976, dt.11.12.1976, and one Smt. Kamalamma, the grandmother of Sri. K. Hari Prasad, purchased the remaining Ac. 2.30½ cents vide document No. 3735/1976, dt.11.12.1976. At a later date, the Tahsildar, Tirupati Rural Mandal, issued proceedings, dated 10.09.2007, against Smt. K. Lalithamma and Sri K. Hari Prasad, under Section 4(1) of the Andhra Pradesh Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act, 1977 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’) for resumption of the land. Under the orders of the Tahsildar, the land was resumed on the ground that, transfer of assigned land is prohibited under the provisions of the Act and any land so transferred can be resumed by the State. Aggrieved by the said order, the affected parties had approached the Revenue Divisional Officer by way of an appeal. During the pendency of the appeal, the affected parties also approached the erstwhile High Court of Andhra Pradesh by way of filing a writ petition in W.P. No.2210 of 2009, apprehending dispossession. This writ petition was disposed of on 09.02.2009 with a direction to the Revenue Divisional Officer to dispose of the appeal. The Revenue Divisional Officer had thereafter passed an order, under the proceedings D.Dis.G/210/2008, dt.04.06.2011, setting aside the order of resumption and remanding the matter to the Tahsildar for fresh enquiry. The Tahsildar, after conducting a fresh enquiry and after considering the explanations submitted by the affected parties, had passed orders in R. Dis. No. (D) 720/2011, dt.20.06.2011, holding that the affected persons were landless persons who had purchased the land in good faith before the Act came into force and were therefore protected under Section 3(5) of the Act. After giving this finding, the Tahsildar restored the lands to Smt. K. Lalithamma and Sri K. Hari Prasad, the legal heir of Smt. Kamalamma, who had passed away in the meanwhile. Subsequently, the District Collector, Chittoor, by his letter dated 20.10.2018 had circulated the list of properties to the respective Sub-Registrars to place the said properties in the prohibitory list maintained under Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908. Aggrieved by the said inclusion of the aforesaid Ac.4.61 cents of land, W.P. No. 11848 of 2019 and W.P. No. 16818 of 2018 came to be filed by the writ petitioners therein.

3. The contention of the writ petitioners, in these writ petitions, was that the aforesaid land had been purchased by them from Smt K. Lalithamma and Sri K. Hari Prasad respectively, and that the said land cannot be placed in the prohibitory list by the District Collector. In both writ petitions, the petitioners sought a direction to the respective Sub-Registrars to receive documents presented by the respective petitioners for different extents of land and register the said documents. The petitioners also sought a direction to receive, register and release the documents they presented without relying upon the proposals of the Tahsildar, Tirupati Rural Mandal, which are said to have been sent on 13.07.2015. W.P. No.16818 of 2018 came to be allowed on 07.06.2019. Subsequently, W.P. No.11848 of 2019 was allowed on 04.12.2020 by applying the judgment passed in W.P. No.16818 of 2018. Aggrieved by the said judgments, the State is in appeal before this Court by way of filing W.A. No.490 of 2021, W.A. No.289 of 2021.

4. Another set of writ petitioners who had purchased the land from Smt. K. Lalithamma and Sri K. Hariprasad