BASAVARAJA Vs. NAGAPPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER is a person who is claiming title to a land that had been granted originally under the provisions of the Mysore Land Revenue Code ('the Code' for short ). An extent of two acres of land had been granted on 21-1-1956 in favour of one Nagappa, a person belonging to Scheduled Caste community. At the time of granting the land, a condition had been imposed that the grantee should not alienate the land for a period of fifteen years from the date of grant as per condition No. 8 mentioned in the Grant Certificate which had been issued in Form 2, copy of which is produced as Annexure-A to the writ petition. Such a land had been sold on 3-6-1970 by the grantee in favour of the father of the petitioner by name S. M. Neelakantappa.

(2.) SUBSEQUENT to the enactment of the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978 ('the Act' for short), the prescribed authority namely, the Assistant Commissioner in-charge of the Revenue Sub-Division, on noticing that a granted land had been transferred within a period of fifteen years from the date of grant, initiated action under Section 3 of the Act. The proceedings culminated in the order dated 18-10-2000 (copy at Annexure-C) whereby the Assistant Commissioner, declared the sale of the land in question by the original grantee on 3-6-1970 was being void for being in violation of the condition of the grant and directed restoration of the land to the original grantee.

(3.) AS by that time the petitioner had succeeded to the interest of the purchaser being his son and being aggrieved by the order passed by the Assistant Commissioner, filed an appeal before the Deputy Commissioner as provided under Section 5-A of the Act. The Deputy Commissioner, though did not agree with the view expressed by the Assistant Commissioner that the grant was free of cost and was of the view that it was a grant for reduced upset price of Re. 1/- Annas 3 and Paise 3 and as such the period of prohibition for alienation of the land as per Rule 43 (l) (a) (6) (a) (ii) as it prevailed at the time of grant was only ten years, nevertheless declined to interfere with the order dated 13-11-2000 passed by the Assistant Commissioner on the ground that the grantee had not obtained permission from the Government before effecting sale of the granted land and accordingly dismissed the appeal.