THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE E.V.VENUGOPAL WRIT PETITION No.18946 of 2023

ORDER

This Writ Petition is filed praying this Court to declare the action of the respondents in not issuing supplementary sethwar and not entering the names of the petitioners in the revenue records pertaining to the lands in old Sy.Nos.1/14, 1/15, 1/16 and 1/17 of Jhari Village, Kerameri Mandal, Kumarambheem Asifabad District, as arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional and consequently, direct the respondents to issue supplementary sethwar and to enter the names of the petitioners in the revenue records pertaining to the said lands and for other appropriate reliefs.

2. Heard Sri M.V.L.Narsaiah, learned counsel for the petitioners and Sri L.Ravinder, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Revenue appearing for the respondents and with their consent, this Writ Petition is being taken up for disposal at the admission stage.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners would submit that the father of petitioner No.1 and the grandfather of other petitioners, by name S.A.Hameed, was the pattadar and possessor of vast extent of the land in old Sy.Nos.1/14, 1/15, 1/16 and 1/17 of Jhari Village, Kerameri Mandal of Kumarambheem Asifabad District. It is further stated that, in the year 1974-1975, the said lands were wrongly shown as Government lands and a notice under Section 6 of the Telangana Land Encroachment Act, 1905 was issued to the mother of petitioner No.1 and the said notice was challenged before the Joint Collector, who in turn passed the following order:-

“An examination of record shows that, the case for correction of survey error and issue of supplementary sethwar is pending with the Director of S&LRS, Hyderabad. Unless the supplementary sethwar is issued and the suit land is transferred in the name of the Appellant, the land still exists as a Government land and the occupants being Non-Tribal over the Government land are not supposed to continue in possession over the suit land, hence the notices issued by the Tahsildar, Wankidi under Section 6 of the Land Encroachment Act are perfectly correct and as per the report of the Tahsildar, Wankidi he was already taken Acs.270-00 guntas of land in Government custody. In view of the above, the land taken into Government custody should continue in the possession of the Government till the case for correction of survey errors and issue of supplementary sethwar is decided by the Asst. Director S&LRS. Further, till such time, the lands should not be assigned to any others and these lands may be given on eksala lease as per rules. With this direction to the Tahsildar, Wankidi, the appeal is partially allowed".

4. Aggrieved by the said order, the mother of petitioner No.1 filed W.P.No.7315 of 1985 before this Court and this Court, by an order, dated 01.12.1998, directed the Director, Survey, Settlement and Land Records, Hyderabad, to finalize the issue with regard to the demarcation of Sy.No.1/14, as ordered by the Commissioner and demarcate the same, find out as to what extent the petitioner’s husband was stated to be owner and if that be so, supplementary sethwar is to be issued and possession thereof to be restored and thereafter, respondent No.1-the Joint Collector to take appropriate action as per law. Learned counsel for the petitioners would submit that during her life time, the mother of petitioner No.1 made number of representations for issuance of supplementary sethwar and after her demise, the petitioners also made number of representations and latest of which is 18.05.2023 to supply supplementary sethwar and to record their names in the revenue records in respect of the subject land. The grievance of the petitioners is that, even after receipt of the said representations, the respondent authorities did not consider the same.

5. Sri L.Ravinder, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Revenue appearing for the respondents has not disputed the submission of the representations and it is stated that, if the repr