THE HON’BLE SHRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.23468 OF 2004 DATED 22nd AUGUST, 2014 Between:
Alla Satyanarayana And others … Petitioners And The Mandal Revenue Officer, Tallapudi Mandal, Tallapudi, West Godavari District, and others.
… Respondents THE HON’BLE SHRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.23468 OF 2004 O R D E R The petitioners challenge the proceedings dated 31.03.2004 of the Mandal Revenue Officer, Tallapudi, whereby he cancelled the pattadar pass books issued to them in respect of various extents of land in R.S.No.2 of Prakkilanka Village.
By order dated 17.12.2004, this Court directed status quo obtaining as on that day to be maintained and the said order was extended thereafter until further orders on 27.12.2004.
Perusal of the order under challenge reflects that the Mandal Revenue Officer, Tallapudi, purported to exercise powers under Section 3(3) of the Andhra Pradesh Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act, 1971 (for brevity, ‘the Act of 1971’) for canceling the petitioners’ pattadar pass books. The pattadar pass books in question are stated to have been issued as long back as in the year 1999. Section 3(3) of the Act of 1971 permits rectification of entries in the record of rights by the Mandal Revenue Officer within one year from the date of the notification issued under Section 3(2). After the expiry of the stipulated period, any person aggrieved by an entry in the record would necessarily have to take recourse to either the appellate or the revisionary remedy provided under the statute.
In the present case, it appears that the subject exercise was initiated by the Mandal Revenue Officer, Tallapudi, on the basis of the representation said to have been made by one Sunkavalli Veerraju and others. This representation was dated 09.04.2003, that is, long after the issuance of the pattadar pass books to the petitioners. There is no indication of when the notification under Section 3(2) of the Act of 1971 was issued. However, as the pattadar pass books were stated to have been issued to the petitioners in 1999, it can be safely presumed that the notification, if any, under Section 3(2) of the Act of 1971 would have preceded the same. Therefore, the temporal stipulation prescribed under Section 3(3) of the Act of 1971 would have exhausted itself long before the purported exercise of powers under the said provision in the year 2004. The impugned order dated 31.03.2004 is therefore without legal foundation and cannot be sustained. It is not open to the authorities to take recourse to illegal and unfounded measures in contravention of the statute. The impugned order dated 31.03.2004 is accordingly set aside. This shall however not preclude the State from availing appropriate remedies in accordance with law in the event it stakes any interest in the lands covered by the pattadar pass books issued to the petitioners.
The writ petition is allowed. Pending Miscellaneous Petitions, if any, shall also stand closed in the light of this final order. In the circumstances, there shall be no order as to costs.
22nd AUGUST, 2014
PGS
------------------------------------- SANJAY KUMAR, J