IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF JUNE TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 8489 of 2005 Between: Eddiga Kalal Kista Goud S/o Linga Goud Singur Vilalge, Pulkal Mandal, Medak District ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Special Deputy Collector, Medak, Land Acquisition Officer Singur Project at Sanga Reddy 2 The District Collector, Medak, at Sanga Reddy 3 Principal Secrtary to Governmetn, Revenue Department, Government of A.P., Secretariat, Hyderabad 4 Pedda Katike Khaja S/o Madar Sab, r/o Singur, Pulkal Mandal, Medak District .....RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.A.BICHAIAH Counsel for Respondents 1 to 3 :AGP FOR LAND ACQUISITION The Court made the following : ORDER: At the interlocutory stage, the writ petition itself is taken up for hearing and disposal with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties. This writ petition is filed for a writ of mandamus to declare the action of respondent No.1 in not paying compensation amount of Rs.64,524.58 ps. to the petitioner in respect of property bearing H.No.1- 77, comprising 22.125 sq.meters of plinth area and 10.672 sq.meters of open area, situated at Singur Village, Pulkal Mandal, Medak District. The said property was acquired for Singur Project and under the award, a sum of Rs.64,524.58 ps. was fixed as market value. The petitioner, who was unsuccessful in persuading respondent No.1 in making payment of the said compensation amount to him, filed the present writ petition. Respondent No.1 filed counter-affidavit, in which, it is averred that during the award enquiry, respondent No.4 filed an objection petition on 03.11.2004 and claimed entire compensation amount in respect of the above mentioned property on the ground that his father purchased the said property on 21.09.1973. It is further averred that in support of the claim of the objection petitioner, the Sarpanch, Gram Panchayat, Singur gave a certificate and on the strength of the same, the said amount was paid to respondent No.4 on 23.02.2005. No reply affidavit has been filed by the petitioner contraverting the averments contained in the counter affidavit. Hence, there is no reason for this Court to disbelieve the said averments. While the amount of compensation was said to have been paid to respondent No.4 on 23.02.2005, the petitioner approached this Court by filing the present writ petition on 08.04.2005. Therefore, the writ petition as it is conceived had become infructuous even on the date when it was filed. At the hearing, Sri A.Bichaiah, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the very payment to respondent No.4 is patently illegal as the petitioner is the lawful owner of the property. Since payment has already been made even before the writ petition is filed, I do not intend to go into this contention and decide the same on merits. Under Section 30 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short ‘the Act’), the petitioner has an efficacious remedy of approaching respondent No.1 with an application for reference of dispute to the competent civil Court. Merely because the petitioner was pursuing this writ petition instead of invoking the said remedy, I do not see any justification to deny him the benefit of availing the said remedy. Hence, the petitioner is permitted to make an application within a period of three (3) weeks from today to respondent No.1 for reference of dispute under Section 30 of the Act as regards the persons who are entitled to receive the compensation. Respondent No.1, within four (4) weeks of receipt of such application, shall refer the dispute to the competent civil Court, which shall entertain the same without insisting on the deposit of the compensation amount and adjudicate the same on merits after giving opportunity to the petitioner and respondent No.4. The writ petition is accordingly, disposed of. As a sequel to disposal of main petition, WPMP.No.11219 of 2005 filed by the petitioner for interim relief is disposed of as infructuous. C.V.NARAGJUNA REDDY, J 17th June, 2008. Note: furnish c.c. in one (1) week. B/o kvni