(1.) The petitioner assails the impugned orders passed by the authorities under the Orissa Land Reforms Act (hereinafter referred to as "the O.L.R. Act") under S. 23-A of the O.L.R. Act in Annexures 2 to 4.
(2.) The short fact of the petitioner's case is that opposite parties 1 to 5 and one Sadasib Majhi (since dead), predecessor-in-interest of opposite parties 6 to 9, filed O.L.R. Case No. 7 of 1980 before the Revenue Officer under S. 23-A of the O.L.R. Act, inter alia, on the ground that the present petitioner has obtained four Regd. sale deeds dated 18-4-1963, 3-9-1963, 15-3-1965 and 23-3-1965 in respect of Schedule-A properties from opposite party No. 1 and late Nitya Majhi, the predecessor-in-interest of opposite parties 3 to 9 without prior permission of the Revenue Authorities as required under S. 7(b)(i) of the Orissa Merged States (Laws) Act, 1950 and continuing is illegal and unauthorised possession of the disputed land and as such should be evicted and possession restored to. It was also alleged that in order to avoid eviction, the petitioner has contained fraudulent sale deeds in 1979, which was false document and declared as such. The petitioner filed his objection refuting the claim and allegations made therein and contended, inter alia, that the proceedings were not maintainable in law and the sale deeds were valid and, therefore, the proceedings should be dropped.
(3.) The Revenue Officer, on enquiry held that the sale deeds obtained without prior permission of the competent authorities under S. 7(b)(i) of the Orissa Merged States (Laws) Act are void documents conferring to valid title to the vendees and, therefore, the possession of the petitioner was unauthorised. He directed restoration of the possession in respect of Schedule A lands. Being aggrieved, the petitioner filed O.L.R. Appeal No. 10 of 1991 before the learned Addl. District Magistrate (E.R.), Kalahandi, which was dismissed by order dated 28-5-1983, a copy whereof is Annexure-3. The petitioner carried a revision to the Collector, Kalahandi, registered as O.L.R. Revision Case No. 2 of 1983, which was rejected by the impugned order under Annexure-4 to the writ application. Despite notice, opposite parties 1 to 9 have not entered appearance to contest the case.