The Hon’ble Sri Justice C.V.Nagarjuna Reddy Writ Petition No.20680 of 2007 Dated 15th June, 2010 Between: M/s.Lucky Granites …Petitioner And The Government of Andhra Pradesh and 3 others. …Respondents Counsel for the petitioner : Mr.R.Raghunandan Counsel for the respondents: GP for Civil Supplies The Court made the following: Order: At the interlocutory stage, the Writ Petition is taken up for hearing and disposal with the consent of the learned Counsel for the parties. This Writ Petition is filed for a Mandamus to set aside proceedings No.C3/5504/2007, dated 14-09-2007, issued by respondent No.2 requesting respondent No.3 to cancel the quarry lease granted to the petitioner over an extent of 3.000 hectares comprised in Survey No.51 of Somasilla Village, Kollapur Mandal, Mahaboobnagar District, as being illegal and arbitrary. The petitioner was granted lease for quarrying granite over an extent of Ac.7.313 guntas in the above- mentioned survey number. Thereafter, a dispute has arisen as to the nature of the land when the forest department claimed that it forms part of reserve forest area. The petitioner was constrained to file W.P.No.11135 of 2007 in this Court for a Mandamus to declare the action of the Forest Department in interfering with its quarry operations as illegal. The said Writ Petition was disposed of by order, dated 19th July, 2007, whereby this Court, while restraining the petitioner from carrying on quarry operations, permitted the latter to file an application before the authority concerned of the Forest Department to accord approval in accordance with the relevant provisions of law and that as and when such an application is filed, the competent authority shall deal with the same by following the prescribed procedure. The petitioner pleaded that in pursuance of the said order, it has stopped quarry operations in the land in question and made appropriate application before the competent authority of the Forest Department seeking permission to carry on quarry operations in the reserve forest area. While the said application is pending, respondent No.2 issued the impugned proceedings with a request to respondent No.3 to cancel the quarry lease granted in favour of the petitioner. Hence, the present Writ Petition has been filed. A perusal of the impugned proceedings shows that the request to cancel the quarry lease granted in favour of the petitioner was made on the purported observation of this Court that the petitioner has not approached the Forest Department with any application seeking permission to conduct quarry operations in the reserve forest area. In the counter affidavit filed by respondent No.4 it is inter alia stated that even though respondent No.2 has made a recommendation for cancellation of quarry lease granted in favour of the petitioner, respondent No.3 has not taken any action thereon and that respondent No.3 has forwarded 8 sets of the petitioner’s application to the Principal Conservator of Forest, Hyderabad, on 13-08- 2007 itself for grant of permission to carry on quarry operations. It was further reiterated in the counter-affidavit that no action for determination of quarry lease was taken and that the petitioner has approached this Court on mere apprehensions and assumptions. In the light of the stand taken by respondent No.4 on behalf of respondent No.3, no direction need be given to them qua the recommendation made by respondent No.2 in the proceedings impugned in this Writ Petition. The petitioner is permitted to pursue its application stated to be pending before the competent authority of the Forest Department. It is needless to observe that further action either for cancellation of quarry lease granted in favour of the petitioner or for granting permission to the petitioner to carry on quarry operations in the reserve forest area would depend upon the outcome of the decision to be taken by the competent authority of the Forest Department on the pending application of the petitioner. Subject to the above observations, the Writ Petition is disposed of. As a sequel to disposal of the Writ Petition, interim order, dated 04-10-2007, is vacated and WPMP.No.27670 of 2007 and WVMP.No.503 of 2008 are disposed of as infructuous. C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Dated 15th June, 2010 lur