IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE THIRTIETH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE L.NARASIMHA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 23599 of 2008 Between: 1 Mangala Najappa S/o.Pedda Anjnappa R/o.Kothacheruvu (V&M), Anantapur District. 2 Manikondla Prabhakar S/o.Late Ramaiah R/o.Kothacheruvu (V&M), Anantapur District. 3 Balineni Masthanappa S/o.Somappa R/o.Kothacheruvu (V&M), Anantapur District. 4 Smt.B.Ratnamma W/o.Satyanarayana Murthy R/o.Kothacheruvu (V&M), Anantapur District. 5 Smt.K.N.Saraswathi W/o.Chandrasekhar R/o.Kothacheruvu (V&M), Anantapur District. ..... PETITIONER(S) AND 1 The District Collector, Anantapur. 2 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Penukonda, Anantapur District. 3 The Tahsildar, Kothacheruvu (M), Anantapur District. .....RESPONDENT(S) 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 writ order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in issuing Notiﬁcation No. RC.8350/08/G3, dt. 10.10.2008 published on 27-10-2008 in Andhra Jyothi News Paper issued under Section 4(1) of L.A. Act, without calling objections from the petitioners U/s. 5(a) of L.A. Act, is illegal, arbitrary and violative of principles of natural justice and to Article 300 of the Constitution of India and consequently direct the respondents to drop all further proceedings for acquisition of land belonging to petitioners notified in the notification dt. 10.10.08 and set aside the notiﬁcation issued by the 1st respondent and pass such other order or orders. Counsel for the Petitioner: KOTHAPALLI RAM MOHAN CHOWDARY Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR LAND ACQUISITION The Court made the following Order: The petitioners claim to be the owners of land in various survey numbers of Kothacheruvu Village and Mandal, Ananthapur District. The 1st respondent published notification dated 10-10-2008 issued under Section 4 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, ‘the Act’) proposing to acquire the land of the petitioners admeasuring Acs.6.49 cents for the purpose of providing house sites to the eligible poor. The petitioners contend that vast extents of government lands are available within the vicinity and their lands are chosen on political considerations. Other grounds are also urged. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for Land Acquisition. The notiﬁcation dated 10-10-2008 did not dispense with the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act. During the course of enquiry under that provision, the petitioners can put forward all their contentions including the one relating to availability of alternative lands. Respondents 1 and 2 are under obligation to consider the objections raised by the petitioners. The question of dispossessing the petitioners does not arise unless the proceedings assume ﬁnality with the passing of the award. Hence, the writ petition is disposed of directing that it shall be open to the petitioners to raise all the objections in the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act and respondents 1 and 2 shall consider the same. The 1st respondent shall pass a reasoned order dealing with the objections. It is also directed that the possession of the petitioners shall not be interfered with unless and until declaration under Section 6 of the Act is published and an award under Section 11 of the Act is passed. L.NARASIMHA REDDY, J 30-10-2008 ks Note: Furnish CC in three days. B/O ks