IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED and THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD WRIT PETITION NO : 23586 of 1998 Between: Kota Venkateswarlu, S/o. Venkatasubrahmanyam, R/o. Kota Village and Mandal, Nellore District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Government of Andhra Pradesh, rep.by its Prl.Secretary, Revenue Department, Secretariat, Hyderabad. 2 The Commissioner and Inspector General of Registration and Stamps, Govt., of A.P., Guntur, Guntur District. 3 The Dy.Inspector General of Registration and Stamps, Govt., of A.P., Guntur, Guntur District. 4 The District Registrar, Assurance ,Registration and Stamps Dept., Nellore, Nellore 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 or order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of mandamus declaring the rules for licensing the document writer under Chapter XXXI of A.P. Rules under Registration Act, 1908 in so far as not speciﬁcally providing for holding a de-nova enquiry before imposing the punishment of cancellation of Document Writer licence on a speciﬁc allegation and the orders passed by the 4th respondent in his proceedings No.TD/755/98dt.16-5-98 cancelling the document writer licence of the petitioner as illegal, arbitrary, unjust, violative of the Art.14, 19(1) (g) and 21 of the constitution of India and set aside the same. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.P.SRIDHAR REDDY Counsel for the Respondents : GP FOR REVENUE The Court made the following : ORDER :: THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED & THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD WRIT PETITION No.23586 of 1998 ORDER : ( per Hon’ble Sri Justice Ghulam Mohammed ) In this writ petition, the proceedings No.TD/755/98, dated 16-5-1998 issued by the 4th respondent-District Registrar, Assurances, Registration and Stamps Department, Nellore, Nellore District, cancelling the document writer licence bearing no.27 issued in favour of the petitioner, is assailed. 2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Government Pleader for Revenue. Perused the impugned order. 3. The case of the petitioner is that he has been practicing as a document writer for the last 13 years without any complaint what so ever. But the petitioner was issued with a show cause notice dated 29-3-1998 stating that in the raid conducted by ACB authorities on 19-9-1997, there was an allegation that the petitioner has been collecting excess fee for his services as document writer from the general public. It is stated that the petitioner submitted his detailed explanation dated 12-4-1998 to the show cause notice dated 29-3-1998 stating that on 18-9-1997, he and his family members went to Tirumala Hills and he was not present on the day when ACB raid was conducted. The petitioner also denied the charge that he charged excess fee from the general public. But, the 4th respondent by the impugned order, cancelled the document writer’s licence of the petitioner. 4. Admittedly, in this matter no enquiry was conducted before the cancelling the licence of the petitioner. That apart, the alleged excess amount said to have been collected was recovered from one A. Prabhakar Rao and not from the petitioner and according to the petitioner on the relevant date he went to Tirumala Hills. Inasmuch as no enquiry was conducted, the truth or otherwise of all these allegations could not be substantiated. Imposing a punishment of cancellation of licence without aﬀording opportunity of being heard in the matter to the petitioner violates the principles of natural justice. 5. In this view of the matter, the impugned order is set aside and writ petition is allowed. No order as to costs. ______________________ Ghulam Mohammed, J ____________________ G. Bhavani Prasad, J Dated: 15th September, 2008 Nrg. ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{NS}