HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE R. SUBHASH REDDY WRIT PETITION No.18871 of 2007 Date : 04.08.2011 Between : K. Sudhakar & another. …..Petitioners And The Land Acquisition Officer (Revenue Divisional Officer), Kurnool & others. …..Respondents HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE R. SUBHASH REDDY WRIT PETITION No.18871 of 2007 ORDER : In this writ petition, the petitioners seek for a declaration by way of Mandamus, declaring the action of respondents in acquiring the land admeasuring Ac.3.12 cents covered by Sy.No.194, situated at Chanugondla village of Dhone Mandal in Kurnool District, as arbitrary and illegal, and also seeks to set aside the Award, dated 26.05.2007, passed in Proceedings Rc.C.801/2006. The land of the petitioners in the aforesaid survey number, along with the lands of some other persons, is notified for acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act for the purpose of providing house sites to weaker sections. After issuing notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, inquiry was conducted under Section 5- A of the Act. The land notified along with others’ lands, were originally held by the father of the petitioners, and thereafter, it was recorded in the name of Sri K.Venkoba Rao S/o.Narayana, who is the elder member of the family. In the inquiry under Section 5-A of the Land Acquisition Act, when notices were issued, Sri Venkoba Rao appeared before the inquiry officer and objected to the acquisition on the ground that the said land is not suitable for house sites and that it was partitioned amongst their family members. As no objections were filed except the representation filed by Sri Venkoba Rao, further steps were taken by issuing draft declaration, and finally, Award was passed on 26.05.2007, in Proceedings No.Rc.C.801/2006. The impugned acquisition proceedings and the consequential award is questioned mainly on the ground that though the land in question has fallen to the share of petitioners in the partition, they are not issued with notices either in 5-A inquiry proceedings or in the award proceedings. A detailed counter affidavit is filed by the Revenue Divisional Officer-cum-Land Acquisition Officer. While denying the various allegations made by the petitioners, it is stated in the counter that the verification of adangal for 1412 to 1414 Faslies with regard to Sy.No.194, admeasuring Ac.9.08 cents, shows that the said land is recorded in the names of Sri K.Venkoba Rao, Sri K.Suryanarayana, Sri K.Sudhakar, Sri K.Krishnaiah, Sri K.Kumar and Sri K.Sekhar. It is stated that the petitioners and their elder brother by name Sri Venkoba Rao have never turned up before the Land Acquisition Officer/Revenue Divisional Officer, and that in response to the notice issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Sri K.Venkoba Rao simply sent two registered reply letters on 31.10.2006 and 31.01.2007, without any evidence for his objections to the acquisition proceedings. It is stated that as no objections are received from the petitioners to the proposed acquisition, the report was sent to the Joint Collector on 26.05.2007 and it is approved by the Joint Collector on 12.06.2007, and Award was passed on 18.06.2007 and Section 12 notice was also issued on 14.08.2007, but the compensation was not received by the petitioners. It is further stated that possession of land was also taken on 22nd of August 2007. In the counter, it is also stated that if the lands have fallen to the share of the petitioners, they could have approached the Land Acquisition Officer after the publication of draft notification in Eenadu Daily and Maha Nagar on 31st of August 2006, and publication of draft declaration in Andhra Bhoomi Daily and Varthamanam on 27.11.2006, but the petitioners have never approached the Land Acquisition Officer/Revenue Divisional Officer, and Sri K.Venkoba Rao, who is the brother of the petitioners, alone sent two registered letters to the Land Acquisition Officer. In this case, it is to be noticed that though it is the case of the petitioners that in the family partition the land in question fell to their share, at no point of time, they objected to the acquisition by participating in the inquiry conducted under Section 5-A of the Act. Even assuming that they were given pattadar passbooks, it is not known as to what prevented them from participating in the inquiry proceedings, as much as the draft notification was already published in the newspapers apart from publication in the gazette. The very purpose of such publication in newspapers is to give wide publicity for the acquisition proceedings, to all the persons interested to participate in the inquiry. When such publications are made in the newspapers, in the absence of participation in the inquiry and filing objections against the proposed acquisition, it is too late for the petitioners to question the validity of the Award at this stage. From the very conduct of petitioners, it is clear that though they were aware of the steps taken by his brother objecting to the acquisition proceedings, they never appeared before the Land Acquisition officer, objecting the acquisition by participating in the inquiry under Section 5-A of the Land Acquisition Act. In this case, it is also to be noticed that only after passing of Award on 26.05.2007 and taking possession on 22.08.2007, petitioners have approached this Court belatedly, by filing an application on 31.08.2007. In the absence of any objections to the acquisition proceedings and as the petitioners have failed to participate in the Award inquiry, I do not find any illegality in the inquiry proceedings, so as to interfere with the same, at this stage. For the aforesaid reasons, the writ petition is devoid of merit and it is accordingly dismissed. No costs. ______________________ R. SUBHASH REDDY, J 4th August 2011 ajr