NUKALAPATI RADHAKRISHNA REDDY Vs. KADIYALA VENKAIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Civil Revision Petition (CRP) is filed under Section 21 of the A.P. Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act, 1973 (for short 'the Act'), against the order of the Land Reforms Appellate Tribunal, Nellore (for short 'the appellate Tribunal'), in L.R.A. No.3/86, dated 23-6-1997.

(2.) The petitioner i.e., Nukalapati Radhakrishna Reddy, filed a declaration under the Act in respect of the land held by him and it is not in dispute that he was declared as not holding any land in excess of ceiling limit. His mother Venkata Subbamma also filed a separate declaration. The Land Reforms Tribunal, Nellore (for short 'the primary Tribunal') passed an order to the effect that she holds 0.6377 Standard Holdings in excess of ceiling limit. The said order became final. On her death, the petitioner herein succeeded to her property together with the liability to surrender the excess land.

(3.) It appears that in the proceedings initiated under Section 10 of the Act, the petitioner herein included Survey No.398/1 as one of the items for surrender. There was some hesitation on the part of the authorities to accept this on the ground that the land in question was not in possession of the declarants. Be that as it may, at this stage, the respondents 1 to 11 herein came forward with an objection stating that the said item of land together with the remaining extent of land was purchased by one Sri Kadiyala Venkaiah, the 1st respondent on 25-2-1955, under an agreement of sale and he in turn sold part of the same to them and to some other persons. The substance of their claim was that inasmuch they are the owners and possessors of that item of the property, the same cannot be accepted for surrender and requested that item to be excluded from the list of properties to be surrendered.