IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE NINETH DAY OF JUNE, TWO THOUSAND EIGHT ONLY PRESENT: THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.21478 of 2004 Between: Stepen & others. … Petitioners AND The District Collector, Ranga Reddy District, Lakdikapool, Hyderabad & others. … Respondents Counsel for the petitioners : Sri B. Maender Reddy Counsel for the respondents: AGP for Revenue (Assignments) This Court made the following: THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.21478 of 2004 ORDER:- At the interlocutory stage, the writ petition is taken up for hearing and disposal with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties. This writ petition is filed for a writ of mandamus to declare the action of the respondents in threatening to dispossess and demolish the petitioners’ houses situated in Devendernagar, Jawahar Nagar Grampanchayat, Shameerpet Mandal, Ranga Reddy District, without following due process of law as illegal and arbitrary. Heard Sri B. Maender Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for Revenue (Assignments). The petitioners claim that they are landless poor persons belonging to weaker sections and that they have been in possession of small extents of house sites in Sy.Nos.375 and 378 of Jawaharnagar Grampanchayat of Shameerpet Mandal, Ranga Reddy District for more than 15 years. They claim that they erected huts for shelter and have been living there. Aggrieved by the action of respondent No.3 in seeking to dispossess them without issuing notice and following due process of law, they filed the present writ petition. No counter-affidavit has been filed by the respondents. The petitioners do not claim any right over the property in their possession, but their grievance is that the respondents are seeking to interfere with their possession and evict them without following due process of law. In the absence of any counter-affidavit filed by the respondents, the plea of the petitioners that the respondents have not followed due process of law deserves to be accepted. The law is well settled that the State and its officers cannot dispossess a person without following due process of law even if such a person is in illegal occupation of the property. In this view of the matter, the respondents are restrained from dispossessing the petitioners from the residential structures, which are in their occupation without initiating appropriate proceedings under law. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of. As a sequel to disposal of the writ petition, WPMP.Nos.28155 of 2004 filed by the petitioners for interim relief is disposed of as infructuous. ____________________________ C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Date: 09.06.2008 ES