IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE NINETEENTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 17677 of 2008 Between: Koyyana Venkata Ramana, S/o. late Ramulu (Ex Service man), R/o. Door No.12/422/1, Thotagaruvu Junction, Old Govt.Dairy Farm,Visakhapatnam(Rural) Mandal, Visakhapatnam District. ..... PETITIONER AND The Sub-Registrar, Bheemunipatnam, Bheemunipatnam Mandal, Visakhapatnam District. .....RESPONDENT Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to issue a writ, order or direction, more particularly one in the nature of writ of mandamus, declaring the action of the respondents in not registering the sale deeds on presentation relating to the land assigned in Procgs.D.R.No.244/90 B3 Dt.12-7-1981 of the Tahsildar, Bheemunipatnam Taluk, Visakhapatnam District for an extent of Ac.4.00 in Sy.No.78 of Kothavalasa Village as illegal arbitrary, violative of G.O.MS.NO. 1117 Revenue (Assignment) Department dated 11.11.1993 and unconstitutional and consequently direct the respondents herein to register the sale documents on presentation by the petitioner forthwith in terms of G.O.MS.No.1117 Revenue (Assignment) Department dated 11-11-1993. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.P.SAI NATH Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR REVENUE The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition is ﬁled by the petitioner stating that his father, who was an ex-servicemen, was assigned an extent of Ac.4.00 of dry land in Sy.No.78, Kothavalasa Village, Bheemunipatnam Mandal while he was in service vide ‘D’ form patta proceedings D.R.No.244/90 B3 dated 12.7.1981 by the Tahsildar, Bheemunicpatnam Taluk, Visakhapatnam District. On 2.12.2002 his father expired leaving behind three daughters and two sons, including himself and the Mandal Revenue Oﬃcer, Visakhapatnam (Rural) has also issued a legal heir certiﬁcate on 23.1.2004 and since then he is in possession and enjoyment of the said land. It is stated that in order to clear the debts, he tried to sell away the said land and submitted the documents before the registering authority, the respondent herein, for registration but the same was refused orally and the documents were returned on the ground that the land is notiﬁed under Section 22-A of the Registration Act. Challenging the same, the present writ petition is ﬁled seeking appropriate directions. A counter aﬃdavit is ﬁled by the Sub-Registrar, Anandapuram, in whose jurisdiction the subject matter of the land is situated, inter alia denying the factum of submitting the documents by the petitioner for registration. It is stated that Sy.No.78 of Kothavalasa Village of Bheemunipatnam Mandal of Anandapuram Sub- District (newly formed by way of re-organisation of Bheemunipatnam Sub-District) comprising an extent of Ac.4.87 cents is classiﬁed as ‘vagu’ by notiﬁcation issued in the Andhra Pradesh Gazette (Extraordinary) on 5.12.2003 prohibiting registration of government lands in Kothavalasa Village under Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908 as opposed to public policy vide G.O.Ms.No.1005 Revenue (Registration-1) Department dated 1.10.2003. Since the said land is a government land, there is a statutory prohibition from registration of the document. However, it is stated that as the petitioner’s father was assigned the land under ex-servicemen quota, he is entitled to alienate the same under G.O.Ms.No.1117 dated 11.11.1993. In view of the above stand taken by the Sub-Registrar in the counter aﬃdavit, this Court directed the Tahsildar, Bheemunipatnam to ﬁle a counter aﬃdavit and also to produce the relevant records. Accordingly, the Tahsildar, Bheemunipatnam has ﬁled a counter aﬃdavit and also produced the relevant record. In the counter ﬁled by the Tahsildar, it is stated that the assignment order issued in favour of the father of the petitioner was only a provisional one and not a ‘D’ form patta and in view of the non-conversion of the land into Ayan and non-ﬁnalisation of sub-division records, the entire extent of Ac..4.87 cents covered by S.No.78 of Kothavalasa Village still continued to be recorded as ‘Vagu Poramboke’ in the settlement fair adangal of the village and, therefore, the same was notiﬁed under Section 22-A of the Act, prohibiting registration of the same. It is the admitted case of all the parties that Ex- servicemen are free to sell the land assigned in their favour after ten years from the date of assignment and that the father of the petitioner was assigned an extent of Ac.4.00 of land in the year 1981. The only reason for not registering the documents presented by the petitioner seems to be the recording of the said land as ‘vagu poramboke’ in the revenue records in view of non-conversion of the said land into Ayan and non-ﬁnalisation of the sub-division records. Once the land is allotted or assigned to any person, it is the duty of the revenue oﬃcials concerned to sub-divide the same. After a lapse of nearly 28 years of assignment made in favour of the father of the petitioner, now the respondents cannot take the stand that since the land is not sub-divided and classiﬁed as a regular patta land, the petitioner cannot sell the said land. For the negligence of the revenue authorities in not sub-dividing the land, the petitioner cannot be penalsied. No material or rules are placed before this Court to show that it is the duty of the assignee after granting D form patta to make an application for classiﬁcation as well as for sub-division. On the other hand, the procedure prescribed clearly indicates that it is the duty of the revenue oﬃcials to sub-divide and classify the land as a patta land. Even the adangal produced by the petitioner shows that out of Ac.4.87 cents of land in Sy.No.78 of Kothavalasa Village, the father of the petitioner was assigned an extent of Ac.4.00 in the year 1981 and that a part of the entire land is vagu. In the circumstances, the Tahsildar, Bheemunipatnam is directed to sub-divide the land to an extent of Ac.4.00, which was granted in favour of the father of the petitioner from that of Ac.4.87 cents in Sy.No.78 of Kothavalasa Village, within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and, thereafter, take steps to sub-divide the land admeasuring Ac.4.00 from that of vagu. After the sub-division, the Tahsildar shall make corresponding entries in the revenue records and issue a certiﬁcate to that eﬀect to the petitioner. On producing such a certiﬁcate, the Sub-Registrar is directed to register the land, if any such document is presented by the petitioners without insisting for de-notiﬁcation of the said land under Section 22-A of the Act, as admittedly, the petitioner’s father was assigned the said land 28 years back. With the above directions, the writ petition is disposed of. No costs. N.V.RAMANA,J DT.19.11.2008 Msv​