Can the superiors in the executive hierarchy in Government dictate to an officer in the matter of exercise of statutory power conferred on him?

2. Petitioner is a member of a Scheduled Tribe. The Kerala Restriction on Transfer by and Restoration of Lands to Scheduled Tribes Act, 1999, hereinafter referred to as the “Act”, for short, is an Act to provide for restricting the transfer of lands by members of Scheduled Tribes in the State of Kerala and for the restoration of possession of lands alienated by such members and for matters connected therewith. Section 4 of the Act provides that notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other law or in any contract, custom or usage, or in any judgment, decree, or order of any Court, any transfer effected by a member of the Schedule Tribe, of land possessed, enjoyed or owned by him on or after the commencement of the Act, to a person other than a member of a Scheduled Tribe, without the previous consent in writing of the competent authority, shall be invalid. The “competent authority”, going by section 2(a) of the Act, with reference to any land, means the District Collector of the district in which the land is situ