THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.17709 OF 2010 DATED 22ND JULY, 2010 BETWEEN Pragada Malludora And Another. … Petitioners And The Tahsildar, Thondangi Mandal, East Godavari District. And Others. … Respondents THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.17709 OF 2010 O R D E R The complaint of the petitioners is that the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL) disconnected power supply to their service connections in violation of the orders passed by this Court in W.P.No.14129 of 2010. They seek a consequential direction to restore the power supply to their agricultural lands in Sy.Nos302/2, 313 and 53 of Srugavruksham Village, Thondangi Mandal, East Godavari District. The material on record bears out that the petitioners earlier approached this Court by way W.P.No.14129 of 2010 apprehending disconnection of the power supply to their bore wells in the subject agricultural lands. Both the APEPDCL and the Revenue Authorities were parties to this writ petition. By order dated 21.06.2010 a learned Judge of this Court while disposing of the writ petition observed as under: “Since the limited grievance of the petitioners is that respondent Nos.1 to 3 are contemplating to disconnect the service connections provided to their agricultural bore-wells without following due process of law, I deem it appropriate to dispose of the writ petition directing respondent Nos.1 to 3 to follow due process of law in the event of service connections provided to the agricultural lands of the petitioners are required to be disconnected. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of. No order as to costs.” The grievance presently is that notwithstanding the aforestated order, without any notice or opportunity the APEPDCL has disconnected the power supply to the petitioners’ service connections in the subject agricultural lands. Reference is made to the proceedings of the Tahsildar, Thondangi Mandal, dated 15.05.2010 and of the APEPDCL dated 19.06.2010. These proceedings reflect that the petitioners were not put on notice with regard to the status of their bore wells in the subject agricultural lands. Once this Court directed the respondent authorities herein, who were parties to the earlier writ petition, to follow the due procedure laid down by law, it is not open to them to resort to high-handed coercive action in violation thereof. If the petitioners have drilled the bore wells in violation of the relevant law, the authorities concerned must take necessary appropriate action in accordance with due procedure against the petitioners. There shall accordingly be a direction to the respondents to restore the power supply to the electricity service connections in the petitioners’ agricultural lands which were disconnected after the passing of the order dated 21.06.2010 in W.P.No.14129 of 2010. Needless to state, this shall not preclude the authorities from initiating action against the petitioners in accordance with the due procedure laid down by law and taking necessary consequential action thereafter, including the disconnection of the power supply. The writ petition is disposed of with the aforestated directions. There shall be no order as to costs. ---------------------------- SANJAY KUMAR, J. 22ND JULY, 2010. PGS/VGSR