IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE EIGHTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION No.19429 of 2008 Between: 1 Bade Srinivasu S/o.Rangaiah R/o.11th line, A.T. Agraharam, Guntur, Guntur District. 2 Gujjula Panduranga Reddy S/o.Subba Reddy R/o.11th line, A.T. Agraharam, Guntur, Guntur District. 3 Dasari Venkata Rao S/o.Venkateswarlu R/o.11th line, A.T. Agraharam, Guntur, Guntur District. 4 Gera Achari S/o.Jaya Rao R/o.11th line, A.T. Agraharam, Guntur, Guntur District. 5 Mohammad Akbar S/o.Mohammad Abdul Khader R/o.11th line, A.T. Agraharam, Guntur, Guntur District. 6 Thadiparthi Nagireddy S/o.Malla Reddy R/o.11th line, A.T. Agraharam, Guntur, Guntur District. 7 Thadiparthi Chandra Sekhara Reddy S/o.Malla Reddy R/o.11th line, A.T. Agraharam, Guntur, Guntur District. 8 Athamakuri Kesavadas S/o.Rama Rao R/o.11th line, A.T. Agraharam, Guntur, Guntur District. ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 The Government of Andhra Pradesh, rep. by its Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, Secretariat Buildings, Hyderabad. 2 The Special Officer and Competent Authority, Urban Land Ceiling, Guntur, Guntur District. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court may be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondent No.2 in treating the petitioners as unauthorised occupants of the Government land even without giving notice and opportunity to the petitioners and the notices issued by respondent No.2 to the petitioners as arbitrary, illegal, void and contrary to the provisions of the Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act, 1976 and in violation of Articles 14 and 300-A of the Constitution of India and consequently set aside the notices issued by the respondent No.2 and consequently direct the respondents not to interfere with the possession and enjoyment of their respective land in D.No.132/A of Nallapadu village, Guntur, Guntur District and pass such other order or orders. Counsel for the Petitioners: MR.PRABHUNATH VASIREDDY Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR REVENUE The Court made the following: ORDER: This writ petition is ﬁled seeking a writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the 2nd respondent- Special Oﬃcer and Competent Authority, Urban Land Ceiling, Guntur, in treating the petitioners as unauthorized occupants of the Government land even without giving notice and opportunity to the petitioners, and the notices issued by 2nd respondent to the petitioners, as arbitrary, illegal and contrary to the provisions of Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act, 1976. It is the case of the petitioners that they purchased certain extents of lands in Nallapadu Village of Guntur District, after obtaining permission from the Special Oﬃcer and Competent Authority, Urban Land Ceiling, Guntur, under Section 26 of the Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act, 1976 (for short ‘the Act’), and are in continuous possession of the said lands, and therefore, the Act has no application to their lands. While so, the 2nd respondent, without considering the said fact, issued impugned notices dated 19.08.2008 to them stating that they have unauthorizedly encroached the Government lands within the urban agglomeration of Guntur Town and the Government has issued G.O.Ms.No.747 dated 18.06.2008 for regularization of excess land in the occupation of the third parties/declarants by paying the prescribed amount to the Government, and if the petitioners fail to exercise such exemption by paying requisite amount along with an application, the excess land which is in their occupation with the buildings thereon would be taken over by the Government. Questioning the same, the present writ petition is filed. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for Revenue appearing for the respondents. Since it is the case of the petitioners that the lands in question are not assigned lands and the Act has no application to the said lands, I deem it appropriate to direct the petitioners to submit an explanation to the notices dated 19.08.2008 issued by the 2nd respondent. On such explanation being submitted, the 2nd respondent shall consider the same and pass appropriate orders and communicate to the petitioners, and till such time, the respondents are directed not to interfere with the possession of the petitioners over the subject lands. If the petitioners ﬁle any application seeking information or any documents relating to the lands in question, the respondents are directed to furnish the same to enable the petitioners to submit proper explanation to the impugned notices. With the above directions, the writ petition is disposed of. No order as to costs. _______________ N.V. RAMANA,J 8th September, 2008 MSV/IBL