(1.) All these writ petitions and writ appeals have been heard together, as they raise common questions of law and fact. However, this judgment will be confined only to those cases, which were subject-matter of earlier litigation in this Court and also the subject-matter of Civil Appeal Nos.13010 to 13019 of 1996 and 2692-93 of 1997 before the Supreme Court and decided by the Supreme Court by the judgment titled, Collector and others v. P. Mangamma and others, (2003) 4 SCC 488.
(2.) There are some disputes raised in some writ petitions between the original assignees and the purchasers. There are some disputes, which are inter se original assignees as well. Those writ petitions will be decided separately and this Court would confine itself to the questions, which were already decided in earlier writ appeals and writ petitions and which were subject-matter of appeals before the Supreme Court.
(3.) Now, with this preface, the necessary facts of the case :