THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO. 9622 OF 2008 Dated 7th July, 2010 Between: Mutyala Baby Sarojini and another …Petitioners And The Forest Range Officer and two others …Respondents Counsel for the petitioners : Sri Narasimha Rao Gudiseva Counsel for the respondents: G.P for Forests The Court made the following ORDER: This writ petition is filed for a Mandamus to declare the action of respondent No.1 in seeking to dispossess the petitioners from their lands over extents of Acs.2.00 cents; Acs.5.00 cents and Acs.6.00 cents respectively in R.S.No.191/2 of Pondugala Village, Mylavaram Mandal, Krishna District as illegal and arbitrary. The petitioners claim to have purchased the abovementioned lands under registered sale deeds. According to the petitioners, the lands are private patta lands and they do not form part of the reserve forest. Their grievance is that without any justification, respondent No.1 is seeking to interfere with their possession and enjoyment of the land. A counter-affidavit is filed, wherein it is, inter alia, stated that the lands in occupation of the petitioners form part of Acs.1058.00 in R.S.No.191 of G.Konduru reserve forest. Therefore, the petitioners are not entitled to be in possession. Under Section 20(3) of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act, 1967 (for short “the Act”), if the Forest Range Officer is of the opinion that any person has been contravening the provisions of sub-clause (iii) or sub-clause (vii) of clause (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 20, he is entitled to evict the person. However under the proviso of the said provision, before taking any such action, the Officer concerned shall give an opportunity to the person affected to make his representation against the proposed action. In the instant case, respondent No.1 has not followed any such procedure. Therefore, the writ petition is allowed. Respondents 1 and 2 are restrained from interfering with the petitioners’ possession and occupation of the land without following the procedure envisaged under Section 20 (3) of the Act. As a sequel to disposal of main petition, WPMP No.12699 of 2008 and WVMP No.1927 of 2008 are disposed of as infructuous. C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Dated 7th July, 2010 vrn