IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE FOURTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.13374 of 2005 Between: Cheerla Uppari Balswamy S/o Cheerla Uppari Chinnaiah R/o Wanaparthy ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Divisional Forest Officer, Government of A.P., Mahabubnagar 2 Mandal Revenue Officer, Governmentof A.P., Wanaparthy .....RESPONDENTS 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 any Writ, order or direction particularly one in the nature of Mandamus declaring the inaction on the part of the respondents in regularizing the land in my possession under guidelines on Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 by correctly projecting the ﬁve acres of land assigned to my father in the assignment order in Survey No.56 of Srinivaspur Village instead of Survey No. 55 as illegal, arbitrary and consequently direct the Respondents to forthwith correctly project ﬁve acres of land assigned to my father, which is presently in my possession and cultivation is in Survey No. 56 of Srinivaspur Village and grant patta in respect of the said land by regularizing the same and pass such other relief or reliefs as this Honourable Court may deem ﬁt and proper in the circumstances of the case. Counsel for the Petitioner: DR.P.B.VIJAY KUMAR Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR FORESTS The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.13374 of 2005 ORDER: The petitioner is a resident of Wanaparthy. He was assigned the land admeasuring Acs.5.00 in Survey No.56 of Srinivasapur Village under circular No.14/1954 issued by the Government of Hyderabad. Petitioner also alleged that even before such assignment, his father, Uppari Chinnaiah, was in possession of the land. In 1961, however, attempt was made by the Government to resume possession on the ground that land in Survey No.55 was assigned instead of land in Survey No.56. Petitioner’s father sought redressal before Tahasildar, Wanaparthy, who by letter dated 26.05.1984 addressed the Divisional Forest Oﬃcer, Mahabubnagar, for clariﬁcation while informing that the father of the petitioner was in possession of the land in Survey No.56. Be that as it is, the petitioner made a representation on 07.06.2003 for regularization of his possession as per the guidelines issued under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, in vain. Therefore, he preferred W.P.No.15073 of 2004, which was disposed of by this Court on 25.08.2004, observing that the petitioner may pursue his remedy before the Revenue and Forest Oﬃcers in the light of the guidelines referred to hereinabove. The said order was also conﬁrmed in W.A.No.2056 of 2004. In spite of the same and also in spite of the report of the Mandal Revenue Oﬃcer dated 06.05.2005 the petitioner’s grievance was not redressed. Therefore, he ﬁled the instant writ petition seeking a direction to the respondents to regularize the land in his possession. This Court while admitting the writ petition on 23.06.2005 granted interim direction not to dispossess the petitioner. The ﬁrst respondent ﬁled an application to vacate the interim order. When the said application has come up before this Court, the matter is heard ﬁnally and is being disposed of by this order. It is the case of the respondents that Reserve Forest Block, Wanaparthy, was notiﬁed vide G.O.Ms.No.782, dated 18.07.1971, under Section 4 of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act, 1967 (the Act, for brevity). The total area is Acs.14,733.06. In view of the guidelines for regularization of occupations, the occupants were categorized into pattadars, occupants prior to 1949, and occupants after 1949. However, in view of Section 4 read with Section 7(2) of the Act pattas cannot be granted unless the enquiry before the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer is completed. Though the possession of the petitioner is not speciﬁcally denied, it is alleged that in view of the notiﬁcation issued under Section 4 of the Act, the petitioner is deemed to be in unauthorized and illegal possession, and that his possession is contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court in T.N.Godavarman Thirumulkpad v. Union of India [1]. When the oral arguments were made by the learned Counsel for the petitioner it has been brought to the notice of this Court that the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer, Mahabubnagar, addressed a letter to the Forest Ranger Oﬃcer, Wanaparthy (the same is made part of the record), a perusal of which, reveals the following. Pursuant to the orders of the High Court dated 23.06.2005 in W.P.M.P.No.16971 of 2005 in W.P.No.13374 of 2005 an enquiry has been initiated to consider the case of the petitioner for regularizing long standing possession in respect of land admeasuring Acs.5.00 in Survey No.56 of Srinivasapur Village, and that the petitioner is in physical possession of the land. In view of this, and as the enquiry is still pending before the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer pursuant to the orders of this Court in the earlier writ petition, this writ petition itself is misconceived. For a similar relief, the petitioner cannot be permitted to go on ﬁling repeated writ petitions. Be that as it is, as the learned Assistant Government Pleader submits that the enquiry is still pending, this Court directs the Forest Settlement oﬃcer, Mahabubnagar, to complete the enquiry immediately within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order, and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law duly communicating the same to the petitioner. The Writ Petition is disposed of accordingly. No costs. ____________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) 04.09.2008 Note: Issue C.C by 08.09.2008 B/o vs To 1 Divisional Forest Officer, Government of A.P., Mahabubnagar 2 Mandal Revenue Officer, Governmentof A.P., Wanaparthy 3 2CCs to G.P for Forests, High Court of A.P., Hyderabad. 4 2CD copies Form-NIC- OGS/WP{TRT} [1] AIR 1997 SC 1228