IMPORTANT POINT
Writ jurisdiction under Article 226 is not maintainable if effective statutory remedies are available and not pursued, especially in cases of delay.

ORDER :

(Subba Reddy Satti, J.)

This writ petition is filed seeking the following relief:

“... to issue a Writ, One in the nature of a Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate Writ, Direction or Order declaring the action of the 5th respondent in refusing the document after giving P.No.232 of 2016 vide refusal order dated 09.09.2016 in respect of land in an extent of Ac.0-95 cents in Sy.No.178/2 situated at Koduru Village and Panchayat, Chilamathur Mandal, Sri Sathya Sai District erstwhile Anantapur District on the ground the scheduled property is a assigned land as per list communicated by Tahsildar, Chilamathur on Under Section 22- A (1) (A) of Registration Act, 1908 as illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional, violative of provisions of Registration Act, 1908 and set aside the same and consequently direct the 4th and 5th respondents to receive, admit the sale deed in respect of above said land for registration and release the same and pass such other order or orders ...”

2. The averments in the affidavit, in brief, are that petitioner’s vendors namely Vaddi Venkata Ramudu, Vaddi Adhi Lakshmamma and Vaddi Saraswathi are the absolute owners of the land of an extent of Ac.0-95 cents in survey No.178/2 situated at Koduru Village and Panchayat, Chilamathur Mandal, Sri Sathya Sai District. Names of the vendors of Petitioner’s were mutated in all the revenue records. After verifying the ownership of the vendors, petitioner purchased property for a valuable consideration and accordingly sale deed dated 30.08.2016 was executed and possession of the property was delivered to the petitioner. When the document was presented for registration before respondent No.5, it was assigned P.No.232 of 2016 and the same was kept pending. Subsequently, respondent No.5, by endorsement dated 09.09.2016, refused registration of the document, on the ground that “the scheduled property is a assigned land as per list communicated by Tahsildar, Chilamathur on Under Section 22-A(1)(a) of Registration Act, 1908”. b) The deponent could not take further steps since he has no knowledge about further legal process. After the amendment of The Andhra Pradesh Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act, 1977 (for short ‘POT Act’), vide Act 35 of 2023, petitioner approached respondent No.5, registering authority, who informed that since document is refused, it cannot be processed, unless the endorsement is set aside. Hence, the writ petition.

3. The instructions of respondent No.5 furnished vide letter No.4/2021 dated 23.03.2024 are placed on record. It is stated that against refusal order, an appeal would lie to the District Registrar under Section 72 of the Registration Act. The free hold orders issued by the revenue authorities in respect of survey No.178/2 of Koduru Village, are not communicated to the Sub-Registrar, Chilamathur Mandal. The property is still in the list of prohibited properties.

4. Heard Sri P. Narahari Babu, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Dilip Nayak, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Revenue/Stamps and Registration for respondent Nos.1 to 5.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the land of an extent of Ac.0-95 cents in survey No.178/2 in Koduru Village, purchased by the petitioner was included in the list of prohibited properties under Section 22-A (1)(a) of the Registration Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the Registration Act) and subsequently the said property was made free hold in the year, 2023. He would submit that Sub-Section 2 of Section 3 of the Assigned Lands Act was amended by Act 35 of 2023 by adding Section 2(i). He would submit that the land purchased by the petitioner is not shown as free-hold in adangal/pahani dated 13.02.2024 and in the column ‘nature of land cist’, it was mentioned as ‘the assigned land made freehold in the year 2023. He would submit that since the land is now made freehold there is no restriction to register the document, dated 30.08.2016, presented by the parties