Point of Law: Prohibition for assignment of these lands under the A.P. Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfer) Act, 1977 is not attracted to the said land since the alienations were made by the ex-servicemen more than ten years after the dates of assignment.

ORDER :

M.S.Ramachandra Rao, J.

The background facts

The petitioner is a Co-operative House Building Society registered on 05.06.2012 under the Andhra Pradesh Mutually Aided Co-operative Societies Act, 1995. It has about 1200 Members. It was constituted for the welfare of the employees of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Hyderabad and was formed to provide individual housing facilities to all its members by developing a housing scheme for its members.

2. M/s. SSPDL Limited is a Company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and owns land in Osmannagar Village and Kollur Village of Ramachandrapuram Mandal of Medak District.

3. The petitioner society approached M/s. SSPDL and expressed their intention to provide housing units for the benefits of its members and requested SSPDL to develop the project by constructing individual houses/homes and convey the same to its members. The petitioner then entered into a Memorandum of Understanding dt.05.09.2004 with M/s. SSPDL under which each member of the petitioner society has to contribute about Rs.24,95,000/- per home/house totaling Rs.299.00 Crores for 1200 homes.

4. The petitioner society also entered into a sale agreement dt.31.10.2014 with M/s. SSPDL in respect of the said plots admeasuring 180 sq. yards each in the overall layout admeasuring Ac.88.26 gts. in Sy.No.30/Part of Osmannagar Village and in Sy.No.191/Part of Kollur Village within specific boundaries.

5. On 31.10.2014, petitioner society also entered into a construction agreement with M/s. SSPDL for the 1200 units at a cost of Rs.155.40 Crores.

6. According to the petitioner, M/s. SSPDL and others were absolute owners and possessors of Ac.93.04 gts. situated in Sy.No.30/Part, Osmannagar Village and in Sy.No.191/Part of Kollur Village of Ramachandrapuram Mandal in the Sangareddy District having purchased it under several registered sale deeds.

7. According to the petitioner, the lands in the above mentioned survey numbers were originally assigned in favour of several Ex-Servicemen in 1972 and thereafter those Ex-Servicemen/assignees duly transferred/sold the said lands to various persons/companies under various registered sale deeds as they were entitled to alienate the said assigned lands after expiry of 10 years from the date of assignment as per the policy of the erstwhile composite State of Andhra Pradesh contained in G.O.Ms.No.743, Revenue Department, dt.30.04.1963 and G.O.Ms.No.1117, Revenue (Assignment) Department, dt.11.11.1993.

8. According to the petitioner, on 05.09.2012 it paid Rs.24.00 Crores to the developer as initial payment and the developer M/s SSPDL applied on 03.04.2013 for a layout to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (for short “HMDA”) under Sections 19 and 20 of the HMDA Act, 2008 for undertaking construction of the proposed group houses in the above property.

9. Pursuant to the said application of the developer, the HMDA addressed a letter dt.20.12.2013 to the then District Collector of Medak District seeking instructions and clearance from revenue authorities for issuance of the layout permission.

letter dt.25.01.2014 of Tahsildar, Ramachandrapuram Mandal

10. After due enquiry, the then Tahsildar, Ramachandrapuram Mandal (4th respondent), through letter dt.25.01.2014 sent a detailed report to the District Collector, Medak stating that:

(i) on verification of the revenue records it is found that some of the ex-servicemen applied for allotment of Government land under ex-servicemen quota;

(ii) and thereafter some of the ex-servicemen alienated their assigned lands to various persons through registered sale deeds;

(iii) that mutation orders were also sanctioned in favour of purchasers and implemented in the Revenue records;

(iv) that the original assignees have sold their lands after completion of 20 years during 1992 to 2006;

(v) that they were free to sell their assigned lands after a period of 10 yrs as per G.O.Ms.No.743 dt.13.04.1963 and G.O.Ms.No.1117 dt.11.11.1993; and