AP High Court: Land allotted before 1958 not under assignment rules

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad,Feb. 12: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has reiterated that the Assignment Rules, 1958, do not apply to lands assigned prior to 1958 and assignment of such lands cannot be cancelled.
Justice C.V. Ramulu allowed a writ petition filed against an order passed on January 27, 2007 under the provisions of the AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfer) Act, 1977, by the Mandal Revenue Officer, Rajendra Nagar Mandal, Ranga Reddy for resumption of 142.39 acres of assigned lands.
For the third time, the government received a setback for the same lands since from 1997. A legal battle is on between the government and the petitioner for the past two decades.
Justice Ramulu said “from the facts it is clear that the entire cause of action was sought to be dug up for the purpose of denying compensation to the petitioners.”
According to the petitioners, they and their forefathers occupied 150 acres of government barren lands at Manchirevula village since 1940 and applied to the erstwhile government of Hyderabad for sanction of pattas under the Laoni Rules of the Telangana Area Land Revenue Act, 1370Fasli.
The government of Hyderabad, based on a report from the Collector sanctioned assignment of 200 acres of Astabal Kancha of Manchirevula village to the landless poor under special Laoni Rules. In 1961, actual patta certificates were issued.
The inspector-general of police of Special Security Force, sent requisitions to the state government on January 12, 1993 for allotment of land to set up a training academy for the SPF.
The litigation began when the DRO, issued a show-cause notice on March 28, 1994 proposing to resume the land on the ground that it had not been put to cultivation. The petitioners approached the High Court and got interim relief. Later a single judge of the High Court quashed the proposals.The order of the single judge was upheld by a Division Bench in 1998.
However, the government approached the Supreme Court and it set aside the orders of the Division Bench in 2000 on the ground that the jurisdiction was vested with the collector.
In spite of the apex court’s direction, a joint collector conducted an inquiry afresh by overruling the objections of the petitioners. The petitioners knocked the High Court’s door in 2002 against the order.
The court set aside the joint collector’s order on April 4, 2002, directing the collector to pass orders afresh. At last on May 10, 2003 the collector passed orders to resume the land. The High Court again quashed the collector’s orders in 2006.
Once again the MRO issued notice to the petitioners on February 11, 2006, to take back their lands and passed orders in 2007.
The government contended that the then tahsildar, West division, has assigned 142.39 acres to several individuals in 1961 in accordance with the Revised Assignment Policy of 1958. It argued that it has power to take beck assigned lands at any point of time.