S. B. Majmudar, J. - (1.) The State of Andhra Pradesh on grant of special leave to appeal has brought in challenge the judgment and order dated 28-2-1978 rendered by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Civil Revision Petition No. 3037 of 1997.
(2.) A few facts leading to this appeal deserve to be noted at the outset.
(3.) The respondent was holding some agricultural lands in the State of Andhra Pradesh. These lands were governed by the Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act, 1973 (Act 1 of 1973) (hereinafter to be referred to as the 'Act'). As per the provisions of the said Act a person who was holding such lands would be entitled to retain possession of lands within the ceiling area permitted by the Act and the excess lands had to be surrendered to the State. The respondent, therefore, filed a declaration under Section 8 (1) of the Act on behalf of his family unit consisting of himself, his wife and two minor unmarried daughters. The Land Reforms Tribunal, Kakinada, by its order dated 12-7-1976 held that the holding of the respondent's unit was 1.6798 Standard Holdings, after excluding certain lands alleged to have been sold by the respondent and his wife under four registered Sale Deeds, namely, Ex. A-1 dated 14-10-1971, Ex. A-2 dated 1-10-1971, Ex. A-8 dated 29-9-1971 and Ex. A-14 dated 29-9-1971. As these four transactions prima facie attracted the provisions of Section 7(1) of the Act, an enquiry had to be held as to whether these transactions were required to be disregarded for the purpose of computation of ceiling area of the respondent as per Section 7(1) of the Act. Section 7(1) of the Act reads as under: "7. Special provision in respect of certain transfers, etc. already made:- Where on or after the 24th January, 1971 but before the notified date, any person has transferred whether by way of sale, gift, usufructuary mortgage, exchange, settlement, surrender or in any other manner whatsoever, any land held by him or created a trust of any land held by him, then the burden of proving that such transfer or creation of trust has not been effected in anticipation of, and with a view to avoiding or defeating the objects of any law relating to a reduction in the ceiling on agricultural holdings, shall be on such person, and where he has not so proved, such transfer or creation of trust, shall be disregarded for the purpose of the computation of the ceiling area of such person." ;