K RAGHURAM REDDY Vs. SINGLE TRUSTEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is tenant of agricultural wet land admeasuring Acs. 9.74 situated at Minagallu Village, Nellore District. The land belongs to Sri Vinayakaswamy Temple, respondent herein. The single trustee of the respondent Temple issued auction notice proposing to sell an extent of Acs.3.45 wetland in S.no. 7A and Acs. 0.90 out of Acs. 4.12 wetland in S.No. 8 proposing to conduct auction on 6.2.2004 at 10.00 a.m. to lease out for a period of three years. This notice is assailed in the Writ Petition.

(2.) The main contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri. K. Srinivas is that the petitioner is a marginal farmer and therefore he is entitled to the benefit under Sec. 82(2) of the A.P. Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987 (for short, the Act). He placed strong reliance on Pavulluri Ramaiah v. State of A.P.1, and a recent unreported judgment of this Court in Writ Petition No. 12649 of 2003 and batch, dt. 12.8.2003.

(3.) After the judgment of the Supreme Court in STATE OF A.P. v. NALLAMILLI RAMI REDDI (1989 (1) APLI 138), Sec. 82 of Act has become enforceable as its validity was upheld. As per Sub-sec (1) of Sec. 82 of the Act an agricultural lease by religious institution in favour of any person stands cancelled. However, by reason of Sec. (2) thereof, if the cultivating tenant is a landless poor person for not less that six years continuously, such person is given right to purchase the land for consideration of 75% of the prevailing market value as and when the Temple decides to sell the land. If a cultivating tenant is not able to purchase the land, he has to be continued as tenant if he agrees to pay at least 2/3rd of market rent for similarly placed lands as lease amount. Explanation to sub sec. (2) defines landless poor person and reads as under: Explanation:- For the purpose of this sub-section landless poor person means a person whose total extent of land held by him either as owner or as cultivating tenant or as both does not exceed 1.01,1715 hectares (two and half acres) of wet land or 2.02,3430 hectares (five acres) of dry land and whose monthly income other than from such lands does not exceed thousand rupees per mensum or twelve thousand rupees per annum. However, those of the tenants who own residential property exceeding two hundred square yards in Urban Area shall not be considered as landless poor for the purpose of purchase of endowments property.