Case: The Government Of Andhra Pradesh &amp; Ors Vs. M. Krishnaveni &amp; Ors

The following factual matrix would be necessary to appreciate the controversy and issues involved in these appeals. One Thota Chinna Seetaramaiah purchased land measuring acres 119.09 guntas in Survey Nos. 68/1,2; 214/1,2,3; 208 to 213 in Kondapur Village near Hyderabad City. He performed the marriage of his eldest daughter, K. Pramila Rani, respondent herein on 21.8.1964. His two other daughters, namely, P. Rukmini and M. Krishnaveni, respondents were married on 9.6.1974 and 10.6.1974 respectivelyThe Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 [hereinafter referred to as `the Act] was passed by both the Houses of Parliament, which came into force in the State of Andhra Pradesh and other States. The Act is primarily intended to achieve the objectives to prevent the concentration of urban property in the hands of few persons; to bring about socialization of urban lands in urban agglomerations to subserve the common good by ensuring its equitable distribution; to discourage construction of luxury housing leading to conspicuous consumption of scarce building materials and to ensure equitable distribution and utilization of such materials; and to secure orderly urbanization, etc. etcSection 2(i) of the Act defines a person as including an individual, a family, a firm, a company, or an association or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not. Section 4 of the Act deals with the ceiling limit in the case of every person. Sections 4 and 5 of the Act lay down an elaborate procedure for determination of the extent of vacant land or the excess vacant land, for the purpose of calculating the extent of vacant land held by a person, the transfers made by him on or after 17.2.1975 but before the appointed day, by way of sale, mortgage, gift, lease or otherwise have to be taken into consideration. If the person is a member of Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), his estimated share in the vacant land held by HUF, is the relevant factor for deciding the extent of vacant land by the competent authority. Acquisition of excess vacant land is provided in Sections 6 to 11. Every person holding vacant land in excess of the ceiling limit is required to file a statement before the competent authority in the prescribed form, which provides for furnishing details of every kind of land held by the person filing the statement (Section 6). On its basis, a draft statement is prepared and served on the person concerned to enable him to file objections (Section 8). Objections when filed are considered, disposed of and final statement with alterations consequent on the decision of objections is prepared (Section 9). Then follows a notification acquiring the excess vacant land by the concerned State Government [(Section 10(1)]. All persons interested in such vacant land shall file their claims at this stage and their claims are determined, followed by a declaration vesting the property in the State free from all encumbrances w.e.f. a date specified in the declaration [Section 10(2) and (3)]. Section 11 lays down the principles on which the amount payable for such acquisition is determined. The amount payable to any person shall in no case exceed rupees two lakhs [Sec. 11(6)]. It is ascertained on the basis of income by taking the net average annual income for the preceding five years and multiplying it by 8-1/3. Where the vacant land does not yield any income the amount payable cannot exceed rupees ten per sq. metre in respect of land in Category A or B and rupees five per sq. metre in respect of land in category C or D. The rate can be less, determinable on a number of considerations mentioned in Section 11(3). A decision of the competent authority on the matter of amount payable under Section 7 is appealable to an Urban Land Tribunal (Sec. 12). Second appeal from the Tribunal order lies to the High Court (Section 13). Where no appeal lies or no appeal has been filed, power of revision of the decisions of the competent authority has been conferred on the State Government (Section 34)The State Government has been given very wide powers of allotment in respect of excess vacant land deemed to be acquired under this Act, or under any other law, to any person for any business, profession, trade, undertaking or manufacture on any terms and conditions. It may also retain or reserve any vacant land to be used for the benefit of the public. It may dispose of any such vacant land to subserve the common good (Section 23)In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1), read with sub-rule (2) of Section 46 of the Act, the Central Government has framed the Rules, called the `Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Rules, 1976 (hereinafter referred to as "the Rules"). Rule 3 deals with the filing of statement under Section 6 of the Act by a person holding excess lands within 212 days from the commencement of the Act and such statement shall contain the particulars specified in Form I (to be furnished in triplicate). Rule 5 prescribes particulars to be contained in draft statement as regards vacant lands and manner of service of the same. The draft statement shall be served, together with notice referred to in sub-section (3) of Section 8, on the holder of the vacant lands; all other persons, so far as may be known, etc. as envisaged under sub-rule 2(a) of the Rules. The notification under sub-section (1) of Section 10 shall be published for the information of the general public, in addition to the publication to be made in the Official Gazette of the State concerned, also (a) by affixing copies of the notification in a conspicuous place in the office of the Competent authority and (b) by affixing copies of the notification in a conspicuous place in the office of the District Collector, Tahsildar and Municipal Commissioner within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the vacant land to which the notification relates is situated as per the procedure prescribed under Rule 6. The case of the parties before the High Court was that as on 17.02.1976, T. Chinna Seetharamaiah was mentally incapacitated. His wife Smt. T. Rama Tulsamma on behalf of her husband, for herself, two major sons, namely, T. Sri Ram Mohan, T. Satish Chandar, and minor son T. Sai Kumar, filed joint declaration of their shares to the land under Section 6 of the Act on 15.09.1976. Declaration on behalf of Smt. P. Rukmini was filed by her brother T. Sri Ram Mohan and on behalf of Smt. M. Krishnaveni by her husband M. Mohan Rao. No declaration was filed by or on behalf of K. Pramila Rani, the eldest daughter of T. Chinna Seetharamaiah, whose marriage was performed on 28.01.1964. The declarants, Smt. P. Rukmini and Smt. M. Krishnaveni, in their declarations, declared that the shares in the land owned by their father were given to them at the time of their marriages as Pasupu Kumkuma as per age-old custom and tradition among the community to which they belonged and such an allotment was approved by the High Court and the Supreme Court in their various earlier decisions. Under the scheme of the Act, T. Chinna Seetharamaiah, his wife Smt. T. Rama Tulsamma, and their minor son, T. Sai Kumar, were together entitled to one unit whereas the two major sons, namely, T. Satish Chandar and T. Sri Ram Mohan, were entitled to one unit each. The declarations were filed by the declarants in Form I on 23.07.1979 giving details of the description of the property, its location and total extent of the land held by them. The competent authority on 23.07.1979 issued a Draft Statement under Section 8(1) and Notice under Section 8(3) of the Act, determining the surplus area after giving one unit to T.Chinna Seetharamaiah, his wife and minor son T. Sai Kumar and one unit each to the two major sons. The daughters were held not entitled to any share in the property. The declarants were advised to file objections, if any, within 30 days of the receipt of the notice and statement of declaration. All the declarants, except the daughters of T Chinna Seetharamaiah, filed a joint petition on 27.08.1979 stating that they have no objection for the surrender of the excess land as determined by the competent authority. The final statement under Section 9 of the Act was issued confirming the draft statement on 30.08.1979. On 11.09.1979, the notification under Section 10(1) of the Act was issued which was published in the Official Gazette No. 38 dated 20.09.1979 and declaration under Section 10(3) of the Act was issued on 09.10.1979 which was published in the Official Gazette No.68 dated 11.10.1979 notifying the vestment of the surplus land with the State Government w.e.f 15.11.1979 free from all encumbrancesOn 23.11.1979, a notice under Section 10(5) of the Act was issued directing the declarants to surrender the surplus land within 10 days of the receipt of the said notice. The said notice was received by the declarants T. Rama Tulsamma, T.Satish Chander, T. Sri Ram Mohan and T. Sai Kumar on 28.07.1980 who voluntarily surrendered possession of the surplus land to the inquiry officer, who took over possession under a Panchanama duly signed by the declarants on 18.07.1980. As per the averments of the appellants, the surplus lands so surrendered by the declarants were handed over to the Social Welfare Department on 18.07.1980 as per the decision of the State Government in G.O.Ms. No. 3072 (Revenue) (UCI) Department dated 14.07.1980. Subsequently, the land has been handed over to the Commandant 8th Battalion of A.P. Special Police Force, Kondapur, by the Social Welfare Department on 12.10.1982. Thereafter, proceedings under Section 11 of the Act fixing the compensation amount payable to the declarants were initiated on 28.07.1980, which were not seriously contested by the declarants. 25% amount of the compensation was paid in cash to the T. Rama Tulsamma for herself, her husband, minor son and two major sons on 17.09.1980. The balance 75% of the compensation amount was paid in Government Bonds to T. Rama Tulsamma and the two major sons on 31.07.1987. T. Chinna Seetharamaiah died on 07.10.1987. Smt. T. Rama Tulsamma died on 02.03.1990. The three sons filed a joint statement furnishing the details regarding the retainable area by them on 26.08.1990The three sons and three daughters of T. Chinna Seetharamaiah filed six Writ Petition Nos. 28157, 28158, 28874, 28491, 28390 and 28292 of 1998 before the High Court of Judicature, Andhra Pradesh challenging the final order of the competent authority under the Act claiming respective shares of the married daughters on the basis of Pasupu Kumkuma as per family arrangement dated 13.11.1970 and seeking exemption under subsequent G.O. Ms. No. 733 Revenue (UCII) Department dated 31.10.1987The learned Single Judge, considering six points formulated in the judgment, directed reopening of the entire declarations on the basis of the claims made by the respondents including the claim of the eldest married daughter Smt. K. Pramila Rani who had not filed the declaration under the Act for getting her share in the land on the basis of family arrangement dated 13.11.1970. As noticed above, the Division Bench of the High Court dismissed the Writ Appeals of the appellants upholding the judgment and order of the learned Single Judge. Hence, the appellants have filed the above civil appeals before this Court challenging correctness and validity of the impugned judgment

Reasoning:
Admittedly, Smt. K. Pramila Rani did not file statement at all before the competent authority in the prescribed form furnishing the details of land held by her as envisaged under Section 6 of the Act and the competent authority was not obliged to prepare draft statement of her share in the land and serve on her to enable her to file objections under Section 8 of the Act. Therefore, Smt. K. Pramila Rani could not be allowed to contend that no inquiry under Section 8 of the Act was conducted by the competent authority and that the vestment of her surplus land in the State Government was bad and illegal. The claim of Smt. K. Pramila Rani to afford an opportunity to her after about two decades from the date of the vestment of her surplus land in the State Government, could in no circumstances be equated and treated at par with her two sisters, who had filed their independent declarations immediately after the enforcement of the Act, requesting the competent authority to hold an inquiry as per the law regarding their ownership of lands which they received from their father in family arrangement dated 13.11.1970, i.e. much before the Act came into force. In these peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, Smt. K. Pramila Rani is not entitled to the grant of the same and similar relief as would be available to her two sistersFor the foregoing reasons, the judgment and order of the Division Bench of the High Court, upholding the order of the learned Single Judge to the extent of granting relief to Smt. K. Pramila Rani, is not sustainable and it is accordingly set aside. Consequently, W. P. No. 28292/98 filed by Smt. K. Pramila Rani shall stand dismissed