Officials with quasi judicial functions must be familiar with

Government officials vested with quasi judicial functions need to be familiar with the rules and statutory provisions and the necessity to follow them, the Madras High Court bench said today.
The court made the observations while hearing a petition seeking to quash the sale deed of a land registered at a sub-registrar office in nearby Sivaganga district,by which the tenancy rights of the property were transferred by a tenant to a third party without the knowledge of the land owners.
Allowing a writ petition by the land owners, V Sornam Achi and Rajeswarai, Justice R Subramanian quashed the sale deed of the land in Ponamaravathi village.

The judge observed that under Tamil Nadu Agricultural Lands Record of Tenancy Act, there was implied prohibition against the cultivating tenant from transferring his right for a consideration to a third person.
The sale deed executed by one Vellaichamy of Ponamaravathi to another A Muthiah of the same village, could not be held valid, the judge held
Even when Vellaichamy had got himself registered as a tenant in the land records, officials had not enquired with the petitioners, which was against natural justice and that also had been set aside, the judge said.

The judge wondered how the sub registrar had registered the sale deed when there was no scope for alienating the tenancy right and registering it for a consideration.

This was an indirect method of land grabbing, he said.
Though sub letting was permitted, complete transfer of tenancy right was prohibited, he noted.
The petitioners submitted that Vellaichamy chose to get himself registered as a tenant in collusion with the officials and then alienate the lease hold rights and sold it to Muthiah.
They prayed for a court direction to cancel the land registration and remove the tenancy rights from Vellaichamy as he was not the tenant and his name had been included in the record without any enquiry by revenue officials.