TELLAM VENKATA RAO Vs. GOVERNMENT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioners, who are the tribals, filed this writ under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, inter alia, seeking a Mandamus to declare para-3 of the Circular Memo No. 889/RH1/99, dated 08-07-1999 issued by the Housing (RH) Department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, as illegal and null and void.

(2.) The Petitioners, who claim to belong to Koya Dora tribe and Kondareddy tribe respectively, found fault with the aforesaid circular, of which the relevant para is hereafter extracted, and complain that it makes serious enroots into the substantive and vested rights of the scheduled tribes which are provided under the provisions of the A.P. Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulations, 1959 apart from para-5(2)(a) of the fifth schedule to the Constitution of India. For convenience sake, the impugned portion of the circular reads as follows:

(3.) The officials of A.P. State Housing Corporation Ltd., will verify the possession of house-site by the non-tribal eligible beneficiary in village site/abadi and then accept the mortgage of the same along with the house going to be constructed thereon, as security.