MOHAMMAD ISMAIL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An otherwise simple case, has unnecessarily become complicated by the inapt way in which the wife of the petitioner approached this court on an earlier occasion and the inapt way in which this Court also dealt with that case. But, notwithstanding the same, that in order to appreciate at least one of the important questions of law that arises in this case, it is necessary to notice the facts, in some details, in the first instance.

(2.) Lands bearing Sy. Nos. 143 and 144 measuring 4 acres 30 guntas and 5 acres respectively of Marinakayanahalli village, Chinthamani taluk, Kolar Dist. were indisputably Government lands. Sometime in 1951-52 the said lands were granted to respondent-3 by the competent revenue authority functioning under the then Mysore and Revenue Act that was then in force and the Rules made thereunder subject to a restriction on the power of alienation by him for certain period. On 27-19-1966 respondent sold the said lands to the petitioner for valuable consideration and delivered their possession also to him, who continued to be in possession from that date.

(3.) On 28-12-1978 an Act called the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Alienation of Certain Lands) Act of 1978 (Karnataka Act 2 of 1979) (hereinafter referred to as the Act) was enacted by the Karnataka Legislature to nullify certain alienations made by members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in contravention of the grants made to them, restore their possession to the original grantees or their legal representatives or in their absence to the State. The said Act was challenged before this Court in a large number of cases.