HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE P.NAVEEN RAO WRIT PETITION No. 33500 of 2013 Date : 09.06.2014 Between:
Chitiprolu Venkata Narasamma W/o. Sarvaiah, Aged 75 years, and others, rep. by their GPA Holder, Garine Venkateswara Rao s/o. Satyanarayana, Aged 58 years, R/o.Ashoknagar, Guntur, Guntur Dist.
.. Petitioners And Government of Andhra Pradesh, Revenue (Registration) Department, rep. by its Principal Secretary to Government, Secretariat, Hyderabad and others.
.. Respondents The Court made the following:
HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE P.NAVEEN RAO WRIT PETITION No.33500 of 2013 ORDER:
Petitioners avers that they own the land to an extent of Ac.20.76 cents in Sy.No.335/4C2 of Pondugula Village. When the petitioners intended to sell the property and approached the Sub-Registrar, Gurazala, for registration of deed of conveyance, the Sub-Registrar refused to receive the same on the ground that the property is prohibited under Section 22-A of the Registration Act. Aggrieved thereby, petitioners preferred an appeal before the District Registrar. The District Registrar also dismissed the appeal. Aggrieved thereby, petitioners instituted W.P.No.8889 of 2013. Petitioners sought for writ of mandamus for declaring the action of respondents 1 to 3 in including the land in Sy.No.335/4C2 of Pondugula Village, Dachepalli Mandal, Guntur District in the list of Government land is illegal and sought for consequential declaration against respondents 4 and 5 in refusing registration based on the said list.
2. On instructions, the learned Assistant Government Pleader submitted before the Court that the land to an extent of Ac.25.86 cents in Sy.No.335/4C2 is a patta land and shown against the names of private owners. Having regard to the said submission, writ petition was allowed by judgment dated 12.04.2013, directing deletion of the lands of the petitioners from the list of Government lands furnished by the Revenue authorities to the Registration authorities. The Court also fixed three weeks from the date of receipt of copy of that order to comply with the order.
4. Aggrieved by non-registration of deed of conveyance even after directions were issued by this Court, this writ petition is instituted.
5. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that inspite of allowing the writ petition, the deed of conveyance presented for registration, which was received on 21.06.2012, is still kept pending and is not processed for registration.
6. Learned Government Pleader produced written instructions, which reiterate their earlier statement made before this Court that the land to an extent of Ac.25.86 cents in Sy.No.335/4C2 is treated as patta land. When the Revenue authorities clearly expressed that the land in Sy.No.335/4C2 of Pondugula Village is patta land, merely because wrong communication was given or though a small extent of land in the same survey number is shown as Government land, the prohibition cannot be imposed with reference to the entire extent of land in the survey number and the Sub-Registrar cannot refuse to process deed of conveyance.
7. When categorical assertion was made before this Court in the earlier litigation that the land to an extent of Ac.25.86 cents in Sy.No.335/4C2 is a private patta land and same statement is now asserted, merely because the revenue authorities did not take up follow up action to delete from the land in Sy.No.335/4C2 from the list of prohibited properties inspite of a direction issued by this Court, the Sub-Registrar could not have kept document P.335 pending for more than two years. The declaration given by this Court in W.P.No.8889 of 2013 is equally binding on him. Such action of the Sub-Registrar declared as illegal. The Sub-Registrar is expected to be careful in future to comply with the Court directions and not to harass the citizens who come before him for registration of the documents.
8. Having regard to the submissions made and in view of the admitted fact that the land to an extent of Ac.25.86 cents in Sy.No.335/4C2 of Pondugula Village, being a private patta land, the Sub-Registrar, Gurazala, Guntur District (3rd respondent) shall process the deed of conveyance in accordance with the Indian Registration Act, 1908 and Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and register and release the document if the same is otherwise in order within a period of three weeks from the date of receipt of copy of this order.
9. Accordingly, this writ petition is disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.
Miscellaneous petitions if any pending in this writ petition shall stand closed.
JUSTICE P.NAVEEN RAO Date: 09.06.2014 kkm HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE P.NAVEEN RAO WRIT PETITION No.33500 of 2013 Date: 09.06.2014 Kkm