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2003 (2) TMI 436 - SUPREME COURTWhether the Chief Conservator of Forest as the petitioner/appellant in the writ petition/appeal is a mere misdescription for the State of Andhra Pradesh? Whether it is a case of non-joinder of the State of Andhra Pradesh - a necessary party? Held that:- No hesitation incoming to the conclusion that it was not only inappropriate but also illegal for the Chief Conservator of Forest, though he might have done so in all good faith, to have questioned the order of the Commissioner of Survey, Settlement and Land Record before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Writ Petition (C) No. 3414 of 1982. The Chief Conservator of Forests as the petitioner can neither be treated as the State of Andhra Pradesh nor can it be a case of misdescription of the State of Andhra Pradesh. The fact is that the State of Andhra Pradesh was not the petitioner. Therefore, the writ petition was not maintainable in law. The High Court, had it deemed fit so to do, would have added the State of Andhra Pradesh as a party; however, it proceeded, in our view erroneously, as if the State of Andhra Pradesh was the petitioner which, as a matter of fact, was not the case and could not have been treated as such. As the writ petition itself was not maintainable, it follows as a corollary that the appeal by the Chief Conservator of Forests is also not maintainable. The permission granted to the concerned authority might be a permission to file an appeal which cannot reasonably be construed as authorisation to file the appeal in his own name, contrary to law. It could only be a permission to file the appeal in the name of the State of Andhra Pradesh in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the C.P.C. We may also record that in spite of the Pattedars taking objection to that effect at the earliest, no steps were taken to substitute or implead the State of Andhra Pradesh in the writ petition in the High Court or in the appeal in this Court. For Civil Appeal No. 9097 of 1995 notification issued under Section 29 of the Forest Act shows that as many as fourteen villages are enumerated therein. Villages Asadpur and Malachintapalli do not figure in the notification. Even otherwise also, the notification does not show anything more than the fact that the Government has formed a protected forest area. That by itself does not extinguish the rights of the private owners of the land nor does it show that the lands in question vest in the State. A plain reading of the statutory order passed by the Commissioner of Survey, Settlement and Land Record under Section 166-B of the Land Revenue Act on December 5, 1981 places the matter beyond doubt that the suit lands were patta lands of the Pattedars. For all these reasons, in our view, the High Court has committed no error in confirming the said order of the Commissioner of Survey, Settlement and Land Record and the judgment and decree of the trial court.
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