THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.5328 OF 2011 DATED 4TH MARCH, 2011 BETWEEN K.Veera Brahmam and others. …Petitioners And The Government of Andhra Pradesh, Rep. by its Principal Secretary, Department of Revenue, Secretariat, Hyderabad and others. …Respondents THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.5328 OF 2011 ORDER: The refusal by the Sub-Registrar, Prattipadu, Guntur District, the fifth respondent, to receive and register the petitioners’ documents in respect of the land admeasuring Ac.3.98 cents in Survey No.533/2 of Chodavaram Village, Guntur Rural Mandal, Guntur District, is assailed. The petitioners seek a consequential direction to the fifth respondent to receive and register the said documents. The petitioners claim to be the owners of the subject land through registered documents of sale. They were also issued pattadar pass books and title deeds under the Andhra Pradesh Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act, 1971. While so, it is their case that the Tahsildar, Guntur Rural Revenue Mandal, Guntur District, the fourth respondent, addressed a letter to the fifth respondent stating that the subject land was classified as ‘vaagu’ in the revenue records and therefore, documents pertaining thereto should not be entertained for registration. Consequently, the fifth respondent refused to receive and register the documents presented by the petitioners in respect of the subject land. Hence, this writ petition. Upon instructions, the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Revenue informed the Court that no notification under Section 22-A(2) of the Registration Act, 1908 was issued in respect of the subject land. If any particular land is claimed by the Government to be its own and the Government wishes to put in place a prohibition with regard to the registration of documents in respect thereof, such a case would fall within the ambit of Section 22-A(1)(e) of the Act of 1908 and the Government must necessarily issue a notification under Section 22- A(2) to make such prohibition operative. In the absence of such a notification, it would not be open to the revenue authorities, basing on their claims founded on mere revenue record entries, to restrain the registration authorities from entertaining documents for registration in respect of such lands. This position is well settled by a plethora of Judgments, a more recent one being that in SHAIK ALI v. DISTRICT COLLECTOR, CHITTOOR[1]. In that view of the matter, the refusal by the fifth respondent to receive and register the petitioners’ documents, basing on the letter of the revenue authorities founded on revenue records, cannot be countenanced. The Writ Petition is accordingly allowed directing the fifth respondent to receive and register the petitioners’ documents in respect of their land admeasuring Ac.3.98 cents in Survey No.533/2 of Chodavaram Village, Guntur Rural Mandal, Guntur District, in accordance with law. In the circumstances, there shall be no order as to costs. ____________________ SANJAY KUMAR, J. 4TH MARCH, 2011. VGSR/PGS [1] 2011 (1) ALT 474