It was a fairly long hearing in Court Hall this week, with decades-old land records being opened up once again. The Andhra Pradesh High Court, dealing with two connected writ petitions, declined to straightaway clear property registrations blocked in Visakhapatnam’s Yendada area, instead sending the parties back to the District Collector for a fresh decision.
Justice B. Krishna Mohan was hearing challenges to refusal orders issued by the Sub-Registrar in 2018, where gift deeds were kept pending on the ground that the land was shown as “prohibited” under urban land ceiling rules.
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Background
The petitions were filed by senior citizen S. Padmanga Butchamari and another purchaser, questioning intimation letters issued by the Joint Sub-Registrar, Gajuwaka. The documents related to plots carved out of Survey Nos. 101/1 to 101/5 at Yendada village.
Registration was denied because the land figured in the list under Section 22-A(1)(d) of the Registration Act, a provision that bars transactions in properties allegedly affected by Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) proceedings. The petitioners argued that the ULC cases dated back to the 1970s and 1980s, were riddled with errors, and in some instances, proceedings were continued even against landholders who were no longer alive.
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They also pointed out that the land had passed through a cooperative housing society and multiple registered sale deeds, with possession never disturbed. More importantly, they stressed that the ULC law itself was repealed long ago, making the continued tagging of the land as “ULC land” unfair and unlawful.
Court’s Observations
Justice Krishna Mohan noted that the dispute was not just about one refusal letter, but about whether the land should continue in the prohibited list at all. Referring to earlier Supreme Court and High Court rulings, the bench observed that mere paper vesting of land under the old ULC Act was not enough.
“The mere vesting of land on record does not automatically mean physical possession was taken,” the court remarked, underlining that possession and due process were crucial.
At the same time, the court was careful not to jump ahead of the statutory process. The judge pointed out that the authority empowered to delete land from the prohibited list is the District Collector, not the Sub-Registrar. Since the petitioners had not formally approached the Collector with a detailed application, the High Court felt it should not decide the issue on merits at this stage.
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Decision
In the end, the court disposed of both writ petitions without quashing the refusal letters outright. The petitioners were granted liberty to apply to the District Collector within four weeks, seeking deletion of their properties from the prohibited list under Section 22-A(1)(d).
The Collector has been directed to hear all concerned parties, verify records and land status, and pass a reasoned order preferably within four months. The Sub-Registrar, the court clarified, must reconsider registration only after the Collector’s decision. Interim orders were vacated, and no costs were imposed.
Case Title: S. Padmanga Butchamari vs State of Andhra Pradesh & Others
Case No.: W.P. No. 13820 of 2020 (with W.P. No. 13447 of 2020)
Case Type: Writ Petition (Article 226 – Property / Registration / Urban Land Ceiling)
Decision Date: 20 December 2025
