IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTY FOURTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 26219 of 2001 Between: 1 Masu Mallaiah S/o.Indur R/o.Garimilla Village Naspur , Mancherial Mandal Adilabad Dist. 2 Thota Bemaiah S/o.Rajaiah R/o.Garimilla Village Naspur Mancherial Mandal Adilabad District. .. PETITIONERS AND 1 The Land Acquisition Officer -Cum-RDO Mancherial Mandal Mancherial, Adilabad Dist. 2 The Revenue Divisional Officer Nirmal Division , Nirmal Adilabad Dist. 3 The District Collector, Adilabad. 4 The Indian Railways Rep by its General Manager South Central Railways Rail Nilayam Secunderabad. ...RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Petitioners:MR.B.SUDHAKAR REDDY Counsel for respondents 1 to 3: AGP FOR LAND ACQUISITION Counsel for respondent No.4: None appeared. The Court made the following : O R D E R: This writ petition is ﬁled for a writ of Mandamus to direct the respondents to pay compensation to the petitioners under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short “the Act”) for acquiring their lands in Survey Nos.595 and 575 respectively of Garilimilla Village, Mancherial Mandal, Adilabad District. Heard Sri B.Sudhakar Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners, and learned Assistant Government Pleader for Land Acquisition. The petitioners claimed that their lands in the above mentioned survey numbers were acquired for the purpose of railway doubling work. Their grievance is that despite acquisition of the said lands, no compensation has been paid. In the counter-aﬃdavit ﬁled by the Deputy Chief Engineer (Construction), South Central Railway, it is averred that the extent of land involved in Survey No.575 is Ac.0.02 gts and Survey No.595 is Ac. 0.00½ gts. It is further averred that the revenue records show that Sri Yedla Rajaiah was the pattadar of the land in Survey No.575; that Sri Shere Pochaiah, who also made a claim earlier for compensation in respect of the said land, appeared and deposed in the award enquiry that he has no objection if the compensation is paid to Sri Yedla Rajaiah and that as Sri Yedla Rajaiah was found to be the undisputed title holder, compensation was ordered to be paid to him in respect of the said land. Similarly, it is also averred that Sri Maja Rajam was the pattadar of the land in Survey No.595; that he died leaving behind him his two sons, namely; Masu Balapocham and Masu Butchanna and that Sri Butchanna died leaving his wife by name Smt Narsubai. It is further stated that during the enquiry, Masu Balapocham appeared and requested for apportionment of the compensation among the legal heirs of the deceased pattadar and that the amount was apportioned under the award passed on 11-09-1996. However, while passing the award on 11-09-1996, the matter was referred under Section 31(2) of the Act in respect of the land in Survey No.595. The answering respondent speciﬁcally asserted that the petitioners have nothing to do with the lands in Survey Nos.575 and 595. No reply-aﬃdavit is ﬁled controverting the said averments. The law is well settled that if a person is interested in the land, which is acquired, he is entitled to participate in the award enquiry and put forth his claim for compensation and that if there are competing claims for compensation, a request can be made for reference of the dispute, under Section 30 of the Act, to the competent Civil Court. If such a request is not accepted, the aggrieved person can seek reference of the dispute under Section 18 of the Act, after the award is made, to the competent Civil Court. It is not the pleaded case of the petitioners that either they appeared in the award enquiry or that they made any request for reference either under Section 30 of the Act or under Section 18 of the Act either during or after passing of the award. Therefore, the writ petition is dismissed. C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Dated 24th September, 2008 vrn