Land dispute: Andhra Pradesh High Court fines Tahsildar for delay in appeal

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has pulled up Mangalagiri tahsildar for delay in filing second appeal in a land dispute case and imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000.  The court asked the amount to be deposited with the State Legal Services Authority within four weeks.

Damarla Nancharamma, a Padmashali woman, donated seven acres of land in Mangalagiri to Padmashali Sangham. The land was used for constructing a tank and in due course, 3 acres were encroached. The Sangham made arrangements for fencing the remaining four acres land. However, revenue officials served notices on the Sangham stating that no construction should be taken up on the land, as it is government land. 

Contesting the claim of the revenue officials, Padmashali Sangham filed a petition with Mangalgiri Junior Civil Judge Court in 2012 and in 2014, the verdict came in favour of the revenue department. However, challenging the verdict of lower court, the Sangham appealed in the senior civil judge court and in August 2015, the verdict of the lower court was reversed in favour of the sangham. In September 2018, angalagiri tahsildar went for second appeal challenging the senior civil judge court verdict. He also filed a supplementary petition for waiving the delay of 699 days in filing the appeal. 

Hearing the case, Justice B Devanand pointed out that the delay was not 699 days and it was 1,016 days. Dismissing the reasons cited by the petitioner that delay was due to officials getting busy in land pooling scheme for Amaravati, he said delay in filing the appeal clearly shows lack of sincerity on part of the officials.