RAJAH RAGHAVARAJU LINGARAJU Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against the Judgment of our learned brother, Bhimasankaram, J., rejecting the claim of the appellants in regard to item Nos. 1 and 40 to 45 in W.P. No. 731 of 1955.

(2.) The petitioner in the writ petition, whose legal representatives are the appellants in this appeal, was the landholder of Cavaravaam estate which was notified by the Government under the Madras Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). He filed an application before the Assistant Settlement Officer for the issue of a ryotwari patta in regard to several items of properties situated in that village. The officer accepted the claim in regard to some items, but disallowed it in respect of certain others. The appeal filed by the aggrieved quondam landholder before the Estates Abolition Tribunal, Chittoor, was partly allowed. The items of property as regards which the appeal was unsuccessful would fall under two heads, i.e., items 1 and 40 to 45 constituting one group and items 16, 23 and 30 forming the other group. The claim in respect of both the groups was disallowed by the Tribunal.

(3.) We are here concerned only with the first category, as the right of the appellants in regard to the second group was recognised by the Government during the pendency of the writ petition. The Tribunal negatived the claim of the appellants in regard to the first group on the ground that there was no proof of cultivation for the year 1939 and that they were pasture lands, presumably within the meaning of section 3 (b) of the Act. Our learned brother agreed with the conclusion of the Tribunal and dismissed the writ petition bearing on these items of property.