COMMON ORDER:

All these civil revision petitions are filed by third parties to the petitions, challenging the judgment in L.R.A.C.No.9 of 1987 dated 02.12.1991 passed by the Land Reforms Appellate Tribunal-cum-First Additional District Judge, Chittoor.

The petitioners herein are the third parties, whereas, the L.R.A.C.No.9 of 1987 was filed by the declarants against the order in C.C.No.1340/PGN/75 passed by the Land Reforms Tribunal, Madanapalle on 04.03.1983. These petitioners are claiming to be the purchasers of the property after ordinance dated 24.01.1971 and before passing the Act. All the petitioners are claiming that they purchased the property on 01.02.1971.

It is the contention of the petitioners that one E.V. Vishwanatha Rao, K. Nagabhushanam, K. Krishna Murthy, R. Vijaya Bhaskar, B. Siva Kumar Reddy and E. Venkat Reddy were partners in real estate business. While transacting their business, they altogether purchased about 400 acres of land from Rani Sundaramani in the name of E.V. Vishwanatha Rao through registered sale deed vide Document No.3399/1968 dated 19.08.1968. Subsequently, after excluding the land already sold, the left over land was partitioned among the partners in November, 1970. Subsequent to partition, E.V. Vishwanatha Rao executed individual agreements of sale in favour of partners in the month of November, 1970. Though regular sale deeds are ready even before the proposal for land ceiling ordinance is initiated i.e. 24.01.1971, they could not be registered due to strike of the employees of the Registration Department and finally registered the sale deed on 01.02.1971. Out of the sale transactions completed on 01.02.1971, E.V. Vishwanatha Rao sold to D. Thimma Reddy, jointly to Nagabhushan Rao and Krishna Murthy to R. Vijaya Bhaskar and other partners. After these sale transactions were completed, due to advent of the Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holding) Act, 1983 (for short ‘Land Reforms Act’), E.V. Vishwanatha Rao submitted his declaration under Section 9 of the said Act disclosing the land sold to these petitioners in the holding. The said declaration proceedings are numbered as C.C.NO.1348/PGN/75. As per Section 7(1) of the Land Reforms Act, genuineness of the sale transactions done between 24.01.1971 to 02.05.1972 has to be examined independently, as the transactions are not abinitio void. The Land Reforms Tribunal without conducting detailed enquiry and without recording any finding about genuineness of these transactions, rejected the claim of the declarant i.e. E.V. Vishwanatha Rao for excluding these lands from his holding and declared him as a holder of 4.2333 standard holding in excess of ceiling area on

01.06.1978.

Aggrieved by the said order, E.V. Vishwanatha Rao preferred appeal i.e. L.R.A.C No.177 of 1977 before the Land Reforms Tribunal- cum-I Additional District Judge, Chittoor and the said appeal was allowed on 22.03.1979 and remanded the matter to the Land Reforms Tribunal, Madanapalle to conduct a detailed enquiry with regard to sale transactions that took place between 24.01.1971 to 02.05.1972, recording a specific finding with regard to the genuineness of those transactions. After remand, the same is restored to its original number C.C.No.1348/PGN/75 and the Land Reforms Tribunal vide order dated 04.03.1983 excluded Ac.23-30 cents which is covered by hillocks, without conducting any enquiry and without giving any finding about the genuineness of the sale transactions, for which purpose the case was remanded and held that 3.8738 holding is in excess of ceiling area. Aggrieved by the said order, E.V. Vishwanatha Rao filed appeal i.e.

L.R.A.C No.9 of 1987 before the Land Reforms Appellate Tribunal-cum-I Additional District Judge, Chittoor and the same was dismissed on 02.12.1991 without proper appreciation of the oral and documentary evidence on record.

Aggrieved by the same, the present civil revision petitions are filed.

During pendency of civil revision petiti