STATE OF KARNATAKA Vs. ANNEGOWDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The State has filed the Civil Petition to review the Judgment in R.F.A. No. 23 of 1973. The appeal was disposed of by this Court on October 25, 1979. On March 25, 1981, the review petition was filed. There is thus a delay of 547 days in filing the review petition The first question herein is whether the State has shown sufficient cause to condone the delay.

(2.) There are five affidavits filed by three officers of the State giving the explanation for the said delay. There are three counter affidavits from the respondents. For a proper appreciation of the cause shown by the State for condonation of the delay, it will be necessary to have regard to the matter involved in the appeal. A land bearing survey No. 88 of Komarahalli village, Salleshpur Taluk, measures 339 acres 19 gunias with valuable trees worth crores of rupees. It originally belonged to an Englishman called Brooks Market. He left that property with his trustees and left the country never to return. The trustees appointed an attorney called Eric Herbert Young who managed the property till 1934. What happened thereafter is in dispute. One Annegowda claimed that property as I is own. In support of his title, he depended upon an entry in the record of rights of the year 1934. It was termed as 'Varga Vargi Rajinama' which indicated that the original owner gave up occupancy rights in respect of the property in favour of Annegowda.

(3.) The case of the Government, however, was that the property was resumed to Government in 1935-36 for nonpayment of land revenue and it remained as Government property. It had not been restored to Annegowda or to any other person Annegowda, on the other hand, contended that after the Government resumed the property, he paid all the arrears of land revenue and the Government thereupon restored the khata of the property in his name in 1967. In support there of, he relied upon some entries in the index of lands and record of rights. But the State did not accept those entries as genuine. During the period, there was a thick forest growth with valuable trees on the land. At one stage, the State prosecuted Annegowda in a criminal case for trespass on the property. But the prosecution failed for want of proof and Annegowda was acquitted with a benefit of doubt.