IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD TUESDAY, THE TWENTY FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE SRI ANIL R. DAVE and HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE R.SUBHASH REDDY WRIT APPEAL No.537 of 2008 (Writ Appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the order dated 07-03-2008 in W.P.No.4786 OF 2008 on the file of the High Court.) Between: Sai Rayalaseema Paper Mills Limited, Hyderabad, Rep by its Dy. General Manager (Secretarial & Corporate Affairs) Mr. S. E. Rao, Plot No.6, H.No.6-3-569/1/4, Somajiguda, Hyderabad. ... APPELLANT AND 1 The District Collector, Officer of the District Collectorate, Kurnool. 2 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Nandyal Mandal, Kurnool Dist., ...RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Appellant: MR.Y.RAMA RAO Counsel for Respondents: GP FOR LAND ACQUISITION The Court made the following: Judgment: (Per R. Subhash Reddy, J) This writ appeal, under clause 15 of the Letters Patent, is ﬁled against the order dated 07-03-2008 passed by the learned single Judge in W.P.No.4786 of 2008. In the aforesaid writ petition, the petitioner had questioned the declaration issued under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short ‘the Act’) with regard to acquisition of land admeasuring Ac.11.70 cents in Sy.No.1002/A, 1002-A/2, 1007/a and 1007/2, situated at Ayyaluru village, Nandyal Mandal, Kurnool District. As much as the learned counsel for the parties have addressed arguments only with regard to the validity of the declaration in pursuance of enquiry under Section 5 of the Act, we propose to deal only with the validity of the declaration. The said declaration is questioned mainly on the ground that though enquiry under Section 5 of the Act was not dispensed with, the enquiry was concluded without issuing notice under Section 5-A of the Act and the declaration was issued. However, in the counter aﬃdavit ﬁled on behalf of the respondents, it is stated that, in fact, notice under Section 5 of the Act has been issued, i.e. the same has been aﬃxed on the survey stones of the land in question and as no objections were ﬁled in response to such notice, the declaration was issued. Even according to the counter aﬃdavit, it is clear that no attempt was made to serve notice to the petitioner at its registered oﬃce or to any of its authorized oﬃcers. On this short ground alone, the declaration issued under Section 6 of the Act is liable to be set aside. At this stage, the learned counsel for the petitioner submits that without waiting for further notice under Section 5-A of the Act, petitioner would ﬁle its objections within a period of two weeks from today. In the circumstances, the declaration issued under Section 6 of the Act is set aside to the extent of land admeasuring Ac.11.70 cents in Sy.No.1002/A, 1002-A/2, 1007/a and 1007/2, situated at Ayyaluru village, Nandyal Mandal, Kurnool District. The petitioner shall ﬁle its objections within a period of two weeks from today. On receipt of such objections, the respondents shall conduct necessary enquiry as contemplated under Section 5-A of the Act and take further steps in accordance with law. The appeal is allowed to the extent indicated above. The order passed by the learned single Judge is modiﬁed to that effect. __________________ ANIL R. DAVE, CJ. _______________________ R. SUBHASH REDDY, J. October 21, 2008 MRR