IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE TWENTY FOURTH DAY OF FEBRUARY TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 28403 of 2008 Between: 1 Katnam Krishna, S/o. Narayana Murthy, R/o. D.No. 60-3-31/2, Lankadivari Street, Kakinada. 2 Katnam Jagannadha Rao, S/o. Narayana Murthy, R/o. D.No. 60-3-31/1, Lankadivari Street, Kakinada. 3 Katnam Nookaratnam, W/o. Late Venkanna @ Pedda Ramu, R/o. D.No. 60-3-31, Lankadivari Street, Kakinada. 4 Katnam Ramu, S/o. Narayana Murthy, R/o. D.No. 60-3-31/3, Lankadivari Street, Kakinada. 5 Pemmadi Lakshmi, W/o. Krishna, R/o. D.No. 60-3-31/4, Lankadivari Street, Kakinada. ..... PETITIONER(S) AND 1 Kakinada Municipality, Rep. by its Commissioner, Kakinada. 2 Koppada Babji, S/o. Lakshminarasimham, Hindu, R/o. D.No. 60-1-8, Lankadavari Street, Jagannaickpur, Kakinada, East Godavari District. ....RESPONDENTS 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 issue a Writ of Mandamus, or any other appropriate Writ, order or direction, declaring the action of the 1st respondent in issuing the Notice u/Sec. 402 of HMC act in Rc.No. 8693/08-G1 dated 6-12-2008 to demolish the petitioner's residential houses viz., the 1st petitioner bearing D.No. 60-3-31/2, 2nd petitioner bearing D.No. 60-3- 31/1, 3rd Petitioner bearing D.No. 60-3-31 and the 4th petitioner bearing D.No. 6-3-31/3 and the 5th petitioner bearing D.No. 60-3-31/4 situated at Jagannaickpur, Kakinada as illegal, arbitrary and violative of principles of natural justice and for a consequential order directing the respondents to drop all further proceedings in this regard. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.CH.DHANAMJAYA Counsel for the Respondent No.: MR.S.NAGESWARA REDDY The Court made the following : ORDER: Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned standing counsel for the respondent Municipality and at their request the writ petition is taken up for final disposal at the admission stage itself. This writ petition is filed by the petitioners questioning the notice dated 6.12.2008 issued by the 1st respondent – Commissioner, Kakinada Municipality under Section 402 of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, 1955 directing them to remove the illegal encroachments made by them in respect of houses bearing D.Nos.60-3- 31/2, 60-3-31/1, 60-3-31, 60-3-31/3 and 60-3-31/4 situated at Jagannaickpur, Kakinada. The case of the petitioners is that the impugned notice is issued by the 1st respondent pursuant to the orders of this Court dated 13.6.2008 in W.P.No.12199 of 2008, which is filed by the 2nd respondent herein complaining about the inaction on the part of the official respondents in taking steps pursuant to the notice dated 23.2.2008, issued by the 1st respondent. By the above said orders, this court while disposing of the writ petition directed the 1st respondent to consider the representation of the 2nd respondent herein and initiate necessary action after putting on notice the affected parties. The grievance of the petitioners is that without putting them on notice, the impugned notices to straight away demolish the alleged encroachments have been issued by the 1st respondent. On instructions, the learned standing counsel for the respondent Municipality submitted that since the only grievance of the petitioners is that the impugned notice of demolition is not preceded by any show- cause notice, the same may be treated as a show cause notice and the petitioners may submit their explanations, which will be considered by the 1st respondent before passing final orders, for which the learned counsel for the petitioners also agreed. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of directing that the impugned notices be treated as show cause notices by the petitioners and they can submit their explanation to the said show cause notices within one week from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and the 1st respondent shall consider the same within a period of one week thereafter and take necessary action. N.V.RAMANA,J DT.24.2.2009 Note: Furnish CC in 2 days (B/o) msv