IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA AT HYDERABAD
P. NAVEEN RAO, SAMBASIVA RAO NAIDU, JJ.
K. Hari Kishan & Others - Petitioners
Versus
Banda Balram & Another - Respondents
A.S. No. 567 of 2019
Decided On : 07-04-2022
AP (T.A.) Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1950 - Section 99 - Civil Procedure Code,1908 - Order VII Rule 11 (d) - Declaration of title and recovery of possession - Original pattadar and has obtained original pattadar passbook - Cultivating lands in Sy.No.338 and they were jointly in possession of lands for cultivating - Sought for declaration of title and recovery of possession - Agricultural Lands Act, 1950 by simply relying on documents filed by the respondents inspite of the fact that they have also filed some documents and that the documents filed by respondents are not proved by way of acceptable evidence - Appellants, as there is no proper record, there is an ambiguity with regard to the rights of protected tenants as pleaded by the respondents - Appellants also claimed that trial court committed error in allowing application filed by respondents without considering record filed by them, though it has placed reliance on the documents of respondents without sufficient proofs - Alleged extract of protected tenancy referred to by respondents was filed without proper translation, has been taken into consideration by trial court - Appellants have claimed that there is no sufficient proof or evidence with regard to alleged protected tenancy and as such, trial court could not have allowed petition filed by respondents under Order VII Rule 11 (d) of CPC by going into merits of case – Held, Alleged extract of protected tenancy register without there being its true translation - As could be seen from order of the Court quite clear that learned Judge has relied on the certified copies of the pahanies and came to a conclusion that names of respondents have been shown as pattadars and enjoyers of the lands - He has believed Ex.P1/extract of protected tenancy register issued by competent authority and held that entries in revenue records can be presumed to be true and concluded that the ancestor of the respondents is protected tenant and therefore, as per Section 99 of Act, the suit is barred. Therefore, it is very clear that the order of the trial court is not on the basis of plaint averments but on basis of documents, which are supposed to be proved by way of evidence, which is not available at this stage - suit is filed for declaration of title and recovery of possession - On the basis of certain documents, Court is not supposed to go into the merits of the suit, while passing order in Order VII Rule 11 (d) of CPC - Finding of trial court about the protected tenancy of the father of respondent No.1/defendant No.1 and grand father of respondent No.2/defendant No.2 is based on entries in alleged protected tenancy register and copies of pahanies - These documents have been assigned exhibit numbers at the time of hearing the arguments in the interlocutory applications and without any oral evidence which is required for proof of the documents - Trial court accepted the contention of respondents/defendants about tenancy of father of respondent No.1/defendant No.1 presuming genuineness of entries as they are entries in revenue record. But in order to believe the said entries, oral evidence is required and such evidence is not available and in fact court is expected to decide the petition only on the basis of pleadings, but not on the basis of evidence and other documents - Appeal is allowed
JUDGMENT :
Sambasiva Rao Naidu, J.
Aggrieved by the order/decree dated 18-07-2019 passed by the learned XIV Additional District Judge, Ranga Reddy District in I.A.No.1315 of 2017 in O.S.No.916 of 2017, the appellants, who are plaintiffs in the above said suit, have filed this appeal. The defendants in the said suit have filed I.A.No.1315 of 2017 under Order VII Rule 11 (d) of CPC, seeking rejection of plaint in O.S.No.916 of 2017. The trial court accepted the contentions of the respondents herein and allowed the I.A., rejecting the plaint filed by the appellants.
2. The appellants have claimed that the trial court erred in allowing I.A. with an observation that the suit filed by them is barred under Section 99 of the AP (T.A.) Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1950 (herein after referred to as the ‘Act’) by simply relying on the documents filed by the respondents inspite of the fact that they have also filed some documents and that the documents filed by the respondents are not proved by way of acceptable evidence. According to the appellants, as there is no proper record, there is an ambiguity with regard to the rights of the protected tenants as pleaded by the respondents. The appellants also claimed that the trial court committed error in allowing the application filed by the respondents without considering the record filed by them, though it has placed reliance on the documents of the respondents without sufficient proofs. They have also claimed Ex.P1, the alleged extract of protected tenancy referred to by the respondents was filed without proper translation, has been taken into consideration by the trial court. The appellants have claimed that there is no sufficient proof or evidence with regard to the alleged protected tenancy and as such, the trial court could not have allowed the petition filed by the respondents under Order VII Rule 11 (d) of CPC by going into the merits of the case.
3. The above said suit is filed by the appellants for declaration of title and recovery of possession. It was their case as per plaint averments that one V. Ramachandra Reddy was the original owner and pattadar of the land in Sy.Nos.336, 337 and 338 of Lemoor Village, Kandukur Mandal, Ranga Reddy District. The grand-father of the appellants/plaintiffs by name Kasimshetty @ Uppari Achaiah along with another person namely Varadareddy were cultivating the lands in Sy.Nos.336 and 337 and they along with one Banda Ramaiah (Father of first respondent/D1) were cultivating lands in Sy.No.338 and they were jointly in possession of lands for cultivating the same. According to the plaint averments, the above said tenancy was on the basis of ‘Koulnama’. They have also pleaded that the names of their grand father and Varadareddy were shown as possessors of the land in Sy.Nos.336 and 337, and name of grand father of appellant, Varadareddy, the father of respondent No.1/defendant No.1 were shown as possessors of land in Sy.No.338. For this purpose, they relied on the pahanies of the years 1955-1958 and subsequent pahanies. The appellants further claimed that after the death of their grand father, their father and Varadareddy cultivated the land in Sy.Nos.336 and 337 and they have also pleaded that for the purpose of convenient cultivation, Uppari Balraju used to cultivate the land in Sy.No.336, Uppari Narahari used to cultivate the land in Sy.No.337 whereas, the father of the plaintiffs namely Uppari Ramulu used to cultivate land in Sy.No.338. Subsequently, the father of the appellants, namely, Uppari Ramulu had purchased the land admeasuring Ac.6-26 gts out of Ac.13-13 gts of Sy.No.338 from the original pattadar and has obtained original pattadar passbook. The main suit has been filed by the appellants with a specific plea that after the death of their father, the appellants herein continued the possession of Ac.6-26 gts of land in Sy.No.338 which is shown as Suit Schedule property and they have further claimed that in their absence in the village, the
A judgment obtained by fraud is null and void; prior tenant rights must be respected without proper challenge to their status.
Tenancy rights under the Hyderabad Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act must be adjudicated by the Competent Authority, and Civil Courts lack jurisdiction to decide such issues.
Civil Courts lack jurisdiction to entertain suits challenging decisions made under the A.P. (T.A.) Tenancy Act, 1950, as per Section 99, which excludes such matters from civil adjudication.
Protected tenants - Restoration of possession of lands - Application filed by appellants/petitioners for restoration under Section 32 of Tenancy Act, were far beyond reasonable time and lacked bonafi....
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