Civil Court Decrees Over Scheduled Areas Post 1972 Null & Void, Claims Must Be Freshly Examined By Agency Courts: Telangana High Court

The Telangana High Court has clarified that Civil Courts do not have jurisdiction to function in Scheduled Areas and all orders or decrees passed by a Civil Court within a Scheduled Area after the year 1972, would stand null and void.

Consequently, it was held that no execution petition arising from such an order or decree could be decided by any forum. In allowing the revision plea, a single bench of Justice K. Lakshman observed:

“The said legal principles imply that the Judgments, decrees and orders passed after 1972 by the civil courts in Scheduled areas were null and void, irrespective of whether the litigation is exclusively between the people of Scheduled Areas or between people of Scheduled Area and people of non-Scheduled Area. Hence, Execution Petitions cannot be filed before any forum for execution of the said decrees. The said cases/claims have to be freshly adjudicated by Agency Courts.”

These observations came in a Civil Revision Petition, challenging the appointment of an Advocate Commissioner for dividing a scheduled property into five equal parts upon a preliminary partition decree based on a compromise.

The case of the appellants was that the disputed land was agency land, and the trial Court had no jurisdiction to try the matter. It was argued that no notice was served to them in the partition suit and instead an ex-parte decree had been passed.

The bench observed that the Erstwhile AP Civil Courts Act, 1972 had exempted Scheduled Areas from the territorial jurisdiction of Civil Courts, and, the A.P. Agency Rules, 1924 had conformed Civil Jurisdiction to Agency Courts instead of Civil Courts.

Further, it was found that in the year 2000, the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh High Court had held that all judgments passed by Civil Courts over Scheduled Lands before 1972 were void.

When an appeal was filed against the aforesaid order, the Supreme Court, chose not to interfere and dismissed the appeals due to a decision of the High-Powered Committee headed by the then Chief Minister.

“The judgments, decrees and orders passed prior to 1972, if involved only non-scheduled area people, may not be invalid as held by the erstwhile High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Saini Lakshmi vs. Bollipalli Janardhan @ Janardhan Chary. However, the Execution Petitions for even the said orders/decrees are to be filed before respective Agency Courts only,”  the Court observed.

Justice Lakshman also noted that the government orders which notified the jurisdiction of Civil Courts for the seven districts created within the State of Telangana in 2016, did not exempt Scheduled Areas from the jurisdiction of Civil Courts, but the same had been challenged before a Division Bench in Adivasi Sena v. State of Telangana.

It concluded, "those persons who have decrees, orders or judgments in their favour passed by the civil Courts (in Scheduled Areas) may lay their claim before the Agency Courts. In the event of such claims being laid before the Agency Courts, the same shall be decided by the Agency Courts, uninfluenced by any judgment, decree or orders passed by the civil courts.”

The Court while setting aside the partition decree also observed that the compromise upon which the partition was based, had not arrayed the present appellants as parties.

CRP No. 1700 of 2023

Counsel for petitioner: P.V. Ramana

Counsel for respondent: Vani Kandarpa

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