IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD THURSDAY, THE FOURTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MRS JUSTICE T.MEENA KUMARI AND THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN WRIT APPEAL NO : 2183 of 2003 (Writ Appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the Order dated 25/01/2002 in WP NO : 28590 OF 1996 on the file of the High Court.) Between: 1 The District Collector, Ranga Reddy District. 2 The Mandal Revenue Officer, Saroornagar Mandal, Ranga Reddy District. 3 Mandal Agricultural Office/Warehouse, Rep. by its Officer, Saroornagar mandal, Ranga Reddy District, ..... APPELLANTS AND Smt. OVJ. Ammaji, W/o. late Sri G.V. Vithal Rao, R/o. Nallakunta, Hyderabad. .....RESPONDENT Counsel for the Appellant:MR.P.GIRI KRISHNA Counsel for the Respondent No.: MR.G.ANANDAM The Court made the following : ORAL JUDGMENT: (per THE HON’BLE MRS. JUSTICE T.MEENA KUMARI) Aggrieved by the order, dated 25.01.2002 made in WP No.28590 of 1996 by a learned Single Judge of this court directing the appellants herein to permit the respondent to retain the land in Plot No. 44 admeasuring 360 Sq. Yards situated in Sy. No. 24 of Saroornagar, Hyderabad East, Hyderabad, on payment of market value at the rate of Rs.250/- per Sq. Yard, with a direction to the appellants to allot alternative land to the Agricultural Department in lieu of the land already allotted, the present Writ Appeal is ﬁled by the Government - respondents in the writ petition. The husband of the respondent herein had purchased the above said plot under a registered document dated 12.6.1967 for valuable consideration and it was subjected to layout by the Gram Panchayat. Since the date of purchase, he had been in peaceful possession thereof and after expiry of her husband she is in peaceful possession of the same. While so, in the year 1996, the oﬃcials of the Government tried to dispossess the petitioner on the pretext that it is Government land and was allotted to Government Oﬃces and tried to raise structures. It is case of the appellants herein that the entire land admeasuring Ac.8/23 gutnas in Sy.No.24 belongs to Government and classiﬁed as Kancha Sarkari and an extent of 300 Sq. yards was allotted to Agricultural Department for construction of oﬃces and, therefore, the respondent has no right over the said land. The learned Single on extensive consideration of the contentions raised by the counsel and on perusal of the material on record, disposed of the writ petition permitting the respondent to retain the land on payment of Rs.250/- per Sq. yard and directing the appellants herein to allot suitable land, from out of the vacant land of Ac.2.00 abutting plot No.44, to the Agricultural Department. Aggrieved thereby, the present Writ Appeal is preferred by the respondents in the writ petition inter alia contending that when the respondent herein is not a party to the Writ Petition No. 22507 of 1994, preferred against the ﬁndings in L.G.C. No. 5 of 1994, the learned Single Judge ought not to have permitted the respondent herein to retain the plot on payment of Rs.250/-. It is also contended that when the actual market value of the land is Rs.3,60,000/- i.e. @ Rs.1000/- per Sq. Yard, the learned Single Judge ought not to have permitted the respondent herein to retain the land on payment of Rs.250/- per Sq. yard. The fact that husband of the respondent herein had purchased the plot in 1967 is not in dispute. It is also not in dispute that after layout, plot No.44 was assigned. Other persons who occupied the land had purchased the plots in the same layout and LGC No. 5 of 1994 came to be ﬁled and the Land Grabbing Court, on thorough enquiry, though held that the land belongs to the Government, has directed such occupiers to pay the market value at Rs.250/- per Sq. yard and the W.P. No. 22507 of 1994 preferred therefrom was also dismissed by this court by order dated 23.7.1996. Having regard to these facts, the learned Single Judge has permitted the respondent also to retain the plot on payment of market value of the land at Rs.250/- per Sq. yard. The learned Government Pleader submits that the market value of the land in question, as on that date, was not less than Rs.1000/- per Sq. Yard and, therefore, the order passed by the learned Single Judge, extending the same rate of Rs.250/- per Sq. yard, as was given to the petitioners in WP No. 22507 of 1994 is erroneous, more particularly when the respondent herein is not a party to the said Land Grabbing Case. We see some force in this submission of the learned Government Pleader. In view of the observations made by the learned Single Judge in the order impugned in this Writ Appeal and in view of the facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the opinion that the respondent can be permitted to retain the plot in question, on payment of Rs.1,000/- per Sq. yard. With the modiﬁcation in the market value of the land, the rest of the order impugned herein is confirmed. The Writ Appeal is accordingly disposed of. No order as to costs. ____________________ Justice T.Meena Kumari _______________________ Justice Ramesh Ranganathan September 4, 2008 MAS. ......REGISTRAR To 1. 2.2 CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WA {RAGHU}