JUDGMENT :

SANJAY KISHAN KAUL, J.

1. The State Government of Karnataka granted lands to members of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community, free of charge, to assist in their economic empowerment and to provide them with opportunity for self-employment through agriculture, the lands granted being agricultural lands. In the early 1980s, the private respondents No.3 were made beneficiaries of such grants on 12.8.1982, of lands measuring approx. two (2) acres for each of these beneficiaries, numbering eight (8), in Bannikuppe Village, Bidadi Hobli, Ramanagaram, Bangalore Rural District. These grants came with certain restrictions, especially qua transfer, so that the very objective with which the lands have been allotted is not defeated. We are concerned, in the present appeals, with the transfer of these lands to the appellant by all the eight (8) beneficiaries, in August and September, 1997, which were sought to be annulled by the orders of the competent authority, under The Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘said Act’).

2. The grants made are on similar terms, and for the prese