THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION No.18811 of 2003 ORDER: Petitioners filed the present writ petition, questioning the impugned proceedings dated 02.03.2000 issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Nalgonda, whereunder the patta certificates in respect of the lands assigned in favour of the 1st petitioner and late father of the 2nd petitioner in an extent of Ac.2.00 each in Sy.Nos.372 and 371 respectively situated at Gollagudem Village, Nalgonda Mandal and District, were cancelled and the said lands were resumed to the Government, on the grounds that the petitioners did not bring the said lands into cultivation within three years from the date of assignment and they have sold out the lands to real-estate businessmen and thereby violated the conditions of assignment. According to the petitioners, after the assignment, the subject lands have been brought into cultivation by spending huge amounts, and that they never sold the lands to anybody much less to real-estate businessmen and they are still continuing in possession thereof. They further state that though in the impugned proceedings, it is stated that the beneficiaries were issued show-cause notices and they submitted explanation, but, in fact, no such show-cause notices were issued to them nor they submitted any explanation. Even the impugned proceedings are not served on them and when the 1st petitioner approached the electricity authorities in regard to obtaining service connection for supply of electricity to his bore well situated in the subject lands, they required him to get a ‘no-objection certificate’ from the concerned Village Administrative Officer, as the lands are government assigned lands, and then he was informed by the Village Administrative Officer that pattas were cancelled in the year 2000 itself and lands were resumed to Government. This Court, on 05.09.2003, passed interim orders to the effect that status quo obtaining as on that date as to the possession of the land in question shall be maintained, pending further orders, and the said orders were subsequently directed to be continued until further orders. Respondent No.2- Revenue Divisional Officer, filed counter- affidavit, denying the allegations made by the petitioners, and it is stated that an extent of Acs.38.02 gts. of ceiling surplus land situated in Sy.Nos.370, 371, 372 and 453 at Gollaguda Village, Nalgonda Mandal, including the subject lands, was assigned to 24 landless poor persons, on 21.12.1976, by the then Tahsildar, Nalgonda, for the purpose of cultivation. It is further stated that the assignment stipulates conditions that the allotted land shall be brought into cultivation within three years from the date of assignment and shall not be subjected to alienation. But however, during the enquiry conducted by the Tahsildar, which was taken up pursuant to publication of a news item in Eenadu Telugu daily newspaper, on 12.04.1998, as regards real estate business with assigned lands, it was found that the assignees have alienated the lands assigned to them to Real Estate Developers, who sold them in house plots to innocent people. It was also found that the petitioners did not cultivate the lands assigned to them from the date of assignment i.e. from 1976 till 1998 and thereby violated the conditions of pattas issued in their favour. Thereupon, show-cause notices were issued to them on 20.05.1998, requiring them to submit their explanation as to why the lands assigned to them should not be resumed in favour of the Government, for violation of conditions of patta, and the said notices were served on them on 05.06.1998. Pursuant thereto, the petitioners along with other assignees have submitted a representation to the 2nd respondent on 09.06.1998, through their Advocate, denying the violation of conditions of patta and requesting to drop further action. But however, as it was clear from the record that the petitioners sold the subject lands and part of them was also registered through various documents bearing Nos.6175/82 dated 23.09.1982, 6543/82 dated 30.09.1982, 565/82 dated 05.04.1982 etc. and house plots were made therein by erecting boundary stones, the request of the petitioners and other assignees was not considered and the entire assigned land of Ac.38.02 gts., was resumed to the Government, by the impugned proceedings, and there is no illegality nor violation of principles of natural justice in it. It is further stated that the possession of the subject lands was taken over on 08.05.2000, pursuant to the impugned proceedings. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Revenue (Assignments) appearing for the respondents. Admittedly, the subject lands were assigned to the 1st petitioner and late father of the 2nd petitioner respectively. On the grounds that the said lands were not brought into cultivation within three years from the date of assignment and instead they were sold to real estate businessmen, in violation of conditions of patta, the 2nd respondent, by the impugned proceedings, ordered cancellation of pattas issued in respect of the said lands as also resumption of the lands to Government. According to the petitioners, there is no violation of conditions of patta, the subject lands were brought into cultivation after assignment and that they never sold the lands to anybody much less real estate businessmen and they are still continuing in possession thereof. After the matter underwent several adjournments for production of record, the learned Assistant Government Pleader appearing for the respondents produced before this Court some record, which, however, does not indicate sale of the subject lands by the petitioners to third parties, by way of registered sale deeds. In spite of granting sufficient time, he failed to produce before this Court any material showing sale of subject lands and, on the last occasion, surprisingly, he represented that the authorities were considering to withdraw the impugned order. Today also, he submits that the matter is still under consideration, and is unable to place any material indicating that the subject lands were sold by the petitioners to third parties. Thus, in the absence of any such material being placed, indicating sale of subject lands by the petitioners to third parties, the contention of the respondents that the petitioners sold out the subject lands in contravention of the conditions of patta, cannot be accepted, more so when it is the specific case of the petitioners that they are continuing in possession of the subject lands. So far as the other ground of not bringing the subject lands into cultivation within three years from the date of assignment, as stipulated in the conditions of patta, on which the pattas standing in the name of the petitioners were cancelled and subject lands were resumed, is concerned, it is to be seen that the lands were admittedly assigned in the year 1976 and the impugned proceedings were issued in the year 2000 i.e. after 24 long years of assignment. If really the petitioners failed to bring the subject lands into cultivation within three years of the assignment and thereby violated the conditions of patta, the respondents ought to have initiated necessary action for cancellation of patta and resumption of the subject lands on that ground, immediately after expiry of the stipulated period of three years, but however, having not chosen to do so and having not chosen to raise any objection for about 24 long years from the date of assignment, they have resorted to issue the impugned proceedings, cancelling the pattas of the petitioners and ordering resumption of subject lands to Government, on the alleged ground of non-cultivation of subject lands within three years, which is unjustified. In this context, it is appropriate to refer to the judgment of this Court in Mudamaneni Chinnaswamy died per LRs. V. Joint Collector, Chittoor[1]. It is a case where the petitioner therein purchased the assigned land for valuable consideration and after more than 25 years of his purchase, at the instance of the unofficial respondents therein, the authorities initiated proceedings under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act, 1977, and restored the said land to the unofficial respondents, on the ground that the petitioner purchased the assigned land in contravention of the provisions of the said Act. A learned Judge of this Court, having dealt with the matter in detail and having referred to various judgments of this Court and Supreme Court on the issue of initiation of proceedings after long lapse of time from the impugned transaction, held that unless there are proper and sufficient reasons such as blatant fraud played by the purchaser of the assigned land and the same which despite due diligence did not come to light, the authorities cannot initiate proceedings beyond reasonable period after the assigned land is sold and that the authorities ought not to have initiated action on the stale representation of respondent Nos.3 to 6 after long lapse of time. Though the context in which the power was exercised in the present case varied, the ultimate result is similar to the above case, and having kept quiet for 24 years after assignment, the 2nd respondent ordered resumption of the subject lands, by canceling the pattas existing in favour of the petitioners, which is unreasonable. For the foregoing reasons, the impugned proceedings are liable to be set aside and are accordingly set aside. The writ petition is accordingly allowed to the extent indicated above. No order as to costs. __________________ JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA 30th September, 2010 IBL [1] 2009 (1) ALT 424