MADDURI VENKATARATNAM Vs. MANGU RAMADAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India, for the issue of a writ of certiorari and for quashing an order of the Estates Abolition tribunal, East Godavari, in T.A. No. 1/66 dated 26-3-1968.

(2.) The petitioner herein claims to be a ryot in respect of lands covered by R.S. Nos. 47,52/1 and 52/3 of an extent of about Ac. 59-00 which are post-settlement inam lands situated in Suryaraopet village, which formed part of the erst while Pithapura, Zamindari Estate, which was notified and taken over by the Government on 7-9-1949 under the provisions of the Madras Act, now the Andhra Pradesh, (Andhra Area) Estates Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari Act, Act No. 26 of 1948, (hereinafter called the Act). The Assistant Settlement Officer, Anakapalli conducted a suo motu enquiry under Section 15 (1) of the Act in S.R. No. 15 (1) 2496/58, to determine the nature, history of the lands and to consider the claims of the land-holders for a Ryotwari patta. The land-holders claimed ryotwari patta under Section 12 of the Act on the foot-under Section 12 of the Act on the footing that they were their private lands. At a later stage in the said enquiry, the land-holders set up a plea that the lands were leased out to one mangu Narasimbarao Panatela, that there was an exchange of patta and Mutchilika between the land-holders and the said Narasimhrao Panatela in the year 1910, that the Raja of Pithapuram filed O.S. No.35/23 on the file of the Court of the District Music, Kakinda, for enhancement of rent. A compromise was effected and an annual rent of Rs. 39-9-0 was fixed, that the said Narasimbarao, dies in the year 1942 leaving behind him his daughter-in-law one Mangu Venkatanarasamma as a sole surviving heir, as her husband predeceased her, that the said Venkata Narasamma is the sister of the land-holders, that one of the land-holders M. Seshagiri Rao, was managing narasamma, that she was entitled to a patta as a ryot and that the petitioner is only a tenant of the said Venkatanarasamma. The petitioner herein stated that he had been in possession of the lands as a ryot under the landlords since the year 1934, that he was shown in the village accounts as the person in occupation eversince that year, that he was entitled to a patta under Section 11 of the Act, and that the land-holders claimed for a patta under Section 12, was not tenable.

(3.) The Assistant Settlement Officer, by an order dated 23-5-1959 disallowed the claim of the land-holders for a patta under Section 12, but without dropping the further proceedings under Section 15, proceeded to consider the claims of the said Venkatanarasamma and the petitioner herein for a patta under Section 11 of the Act and directed to issue a ryotwari patta to Venkatanarasamma. Against the said order, the petitioner herein preferred an appeal to the Estates Abolition tribunal, in A.S. No.44/59 and the tribunal, by its judgment dated 13-8-1960, dismissed the same. The matter was carried by way of a Writ Petition in W.P.No.709/60 to this Court. The Writ Petition was dismissed by a judgment dated 27-7-1961. The further appeal W.A.No.72/61 preferred against the said judgment, was also dismissed on 11-9-1961.