IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE NINETH DAY OF JULY TWO THOUSAND AND FOUR PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 11676 of 2004 Between: 1 Smt. Mullapudi Krishna Veni W/o Sri Krishna Rao Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 2 Smt. Reddy Healatha W/o Sri Satyanarayana Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 3 Nekkalapudi Ramakrishna Pratap S/o Sri Raghunayakulu Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 4 Vankina Krishna Rao S/o Sri Gopalam Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 5 Smt. Parimi Lakshmi Devamma W/o Sri Ammanna Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 6 Kakaraparti Susheela W/o Sri Chander Rao Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 7 Parimi Venkatarama Krishna S/o Sri Ammanna Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 8 Parimi Ammanna S/o Sri Venkataranyudu Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 9 Smt. Lanka Laxmikantham W/o Sri Pothuraju Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 10 Vadaparthi Venkata Lakshmi S/o Sri Venkataramana Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 11 Vankina Sundaramma S/o Sri Krishna Rao Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 12 Lanka Swami Satyam S/o Sri Saheb Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District 13 Yelammati Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Prasad S/o Sri Venkat Rao Badampudi Village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District ..... PETITIONER(S) AND 1 The Joint Collector cum Arbitrator, West Godavari District, at Eluru 2 Revenue Divisional Officer Eluru, west Godavari District .....RESPONDENT(S) Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue a writ, order or direction, more particularly one in the nature of WRit of Mandamus, declaring the action of the Respondents is not conducting the proceedings under section 3G (5) and (6) of the National Highways (Amendment) Act, 1956 for determining the compensation for the lands acquired from petitioners in Rc(A) No.1 to 14 of 03 as illegal and contrary to law and further direct the Respondents to conduct the proceedings on day to day basis and pass the awards of compensation on merits within three months Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.M.V.DURGA PRASAD Counsel for the Respondents.: GP FOR LAND ACQUISITION The Court made the following : THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA W.P. No. 11676 of 2004 Oral order: Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for Land Acquisition, and with their consent, the writ petition itself is being disposed of finally. The lands of the petitioners were acquired by the Government for the purpose of widening of road on National Highway No. 5 running between Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam Section. The petitioners raised their objections with regard to the compensation fixed by the Revenue Divisional Officer. The matter, therefore, was referred to respondent No.1-Arbitrator on 29-10-2003. Though the matter was referred to respondent No.1 as far back as on 29-10-2003, no headway has been made in the disposal of the matter. The petitioners, therefore, filed this writ petition seeking directions to respondent No.1 to expeditiously dispose of the arbitration proceedings. The learned Government Pleader for Land Acquisition on instructions submitted that because of the Parliamentary and Assembly elections, respondent No.1 could not take up the arbitration matters, and presently there are more than 100 arbitration matters, and submitted that three months time be granted to respondent No.1 to dispose of the arbitration matter relating to the petitioners. In the circumstances, the writ petition is disposed of directing respondent No.1 to complete the hearing of the arbitration matter relating the petitioners, and pass appropriate orders thereon, within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. No costs. _________________ N.V. RAMANA, J. Date: July 9, 2004. KSR