NEW DELHI: In a curious case that can have a direct bearing on Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s Career, the Supreme Court has directed the Andhra Pradesh government to produce records of 4 controversial sale of his joint family land in 1981. It has questioned the validity of this sale. The court will examine the Original records produced by the State government on Feb.2. Whatever be the verdict, it so tums Out that the validity of a deal involving the Prime Minister and an Andhra Minister is challenged on the highest court of the land by the government of that state itself.
The sale of 200 acres of agricultural and by Narasimha Rao and his three sons, P.V.Ranga Rao, an Andhra Minister, PV.Rajeswara Rao and P.V,Prabhakara Rao had been validated by the land tribunal built was questioned by the stat government in 1985. The ground shown by the state government was that the land in question in Karmnagar district should have been surrendered to the state government under the agricultural land ceiling act.
What really came up before the Supreme Court on Wednesday was the state government’s special leave petition urging it to condone the delay in filing an appeal against the tribunals order in the Hyderabad High Court Justice Kuldip Sing hand Justice $.Mohan however chose to go into the merit Of the transaction even beyond considering the special leave petition for condoning the delay in filing the appeal against the tribunal’s order.
A significant development was that the state government’s counsel, T.V.S.N. Chari, had an occasion to tell the Supreme Court on Wednesday that all the sales were by unregistered agreements and not by way of registered sale deeds. Chari also said that the land purportedly sold could not be excluded from the joint family holding under the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Land Ceiling Act.
That the state government’s counsel took such a position on Wednesday made the case all the more interesting. This cannot but have wide ranging implications including the relationship between Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Andhra Chief Minister Vijayabhaskara Reddy, No matter what view the Supreme Court finally takes of the case, the fact the State government has consistently held not only the land should have been surrendered to the government but also that the unregistered sale was invalid can affect the course of state and national politics in the coming weeks.
In a court jam-packed with the lawyers and the Press, as this was the first item of business before Justices Kuldip Singh and S. Mohan, the judges wanted to dispose of the whole matter, including the veracity of the 1975 sale of the agricultural land by the “joint family” of the Prime Minister, even though the 1985 appeal of the Andhra Pradesh government was only against the refusal of the high court1o condone the delay of two days in appealing against the September 5,1981, order of the land tribunal. The tribunal had held that the sales were “true and genuine.”
Article extracted from this publication >> February 5, 1993
