Hon’ble Salil Kumar Rai, J.—Supplementary counter-affidavit filed today, is taken on record.

2. Heard Shri K.N.Rai, counsel for the petitioners in both the writ petitions and Shri Pradeep Kumar Rai, counsel for respondent Nos. 3 and 4 and the heirs of respondent No. 4 in the said writ petitions.

3. With the consent of the counsel for the parties, both the writ petitions were connected by order dated 16.4.2018 passed by this Court in Writ Petition No. 15940 of 1999 and have been heard together and are being decided by a common judgment as the parties are same in both the cases and the property as well as the dispute involved in both the writ petitions are also similar.

4. The dispute between the parties relate to Plot Nos. 75, 76 and 77 (total area 3.92 acres) situated in Village Neelkanthpur District Ballia (hereinafter referred to as, ‘disputed plots’). It transpires that one Guddar Giri i.e the father of the petitioners was the recorded tenure holder of the disputed plots. Guddar Giri died in 1977. It is an admitted case of the parties that petitioners were minor at the time of the death of Guddar Giri. It also transpires from the records that immediately after the death