MUNGAPPA Vs. SPECIAL DEPUTY COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two writ petitions are by brothers, who had claimed as the legal heirs of one Nagamma, a person belonging to scheduled caste community and in whose favour an extent of 1 acre of land in Sy. No. 155 of Hoodi village K. R. Puram Hobli, Bangalore had been granted in terms of the sanction order dated 25-6-1952, issued by the Revenue Commissioner in No. D. Dis. C1. DR. 177/51-52. The sanction order was one sanctioning the grant of land to an extent of 9 acres 39 guntas in the said survey number to nine persons mentioned in the order, who belong to adi-Karnataka community, i. e, an extent of 1 acre in favour of each person, in accordance with the Rules governing the grant of land to persons belonging to depressed class.

(2.) THIS sanction order was followed by an individual grant order dated 30-3-1954 in favour of the said Nagamma, granting her one acre of land subject to the condition that the land should not be alienated permanently, as the grant was free of cost, and further a saguvali chit was issued on 23-10-1954, where under also, the condition that the land cannot be alienated by the granted permanently had been mentioned.

(3.) IT is such land that had been sold by the daughter of the original grantee Smt. Byramma in terms of the sale deed dated 16-4-1968 in favour of one Ramanujalu Reddy-father of the third respondent. It is in respect of this transaction, the petitioner in WP No. 31938 of 2004 had filed an application to the Assistant Commissioner under the provisions of Section 5 of the Karnataka scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978 (for short, the Act) praying for invalidation of the sale transaction and for resumption and restitution of the land etc. The Assistant Commissioner issued notice to the person in occupation of the land namely the third respondent herein and conducted an enquiry and found that the land in question had been granted in favour of said Nagamma, who belonged to scheduled caste, free of cost, subject to the condition that the land should not be alienated for good and such a land having been sold in terms of the sale transaction dated 16-4-1968, the transaction is clearly one attracting the provisions of Section 4 (1) of the Act, as the sale was in violation of the condition of the grant and accordingly invalidated the transaction and directed resumption and restitution of the land to the applicant and for effecting necessary corrective entries in the revenue records.