IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) SATURDAY, THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF APRIL TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE G.CHANDRAIAH WRIT PETITION NO : 26622 of 2001 Between: St. Joseph's Education Society (Regd. No. 1334/92) Rep. by its Secretary, Maram Vijaya Prasad S/o Late Maram Joji, 8-3-169/57, 58, 64, 65, Habeeb Fathima Nagar, Borabanda, Hyderabad. Office at 10-1-639, Chintal Basti, Khairatabad, Hyderabad. ..... PETITIONER AND The Mandal Revenue Officer, Khairatabad, Adarsh Nagar, Khairatabad, Hyderabad. .....RESPONDENT 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 a Writ, order or direction, particularly in the nature of Writ of MANDAMUS declaring the action of the respondent in ordering the petitioner not ot proceed with the construction of the School Buildings in the premises, MCH Houses Nos. 8-3-169/253, 8-3- 169/254 and 8-3-169/255 in Sy.No. 127, ad-measuring totally 180 Sq. yds (i.e.60+60+60 Sq. yds) situated at Habeeb Fathima Nagar, Borabanda, Hyderabad, as arbitrary, unjust and illegal and consequently hold that the petitioner is entitled to proceed with the construction of School Building complying statutory requirement in the said premises. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.N.RUSHENDER REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR REVENUE The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition has been filed seeking Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondent in ordering the petitioner not to proceed with the construction of School building in the premises MCH House No.8-3-169/253, 254, 255 in Survey No.127, admeasuring 180 square yards totally, situated at Habeeb Fathima Nagar, Borabanda, Hyderabad, as arbitrary, unjust and illegal and consequently hold that the petitioner is entitled to proceed with the construction of School building complying with the statutory requirements in the said premises. The case of the petitioner, in brief, is that he is the Secretary of St.Joseph’s Educational Society and Correspondent of the St.Joseph’s High School, situated in the above said premises. The said society has purchased 180 square yards of land from three different vendors, each admeasuring 60 square yards, bearing house Nos.8-3-169/253, 254 and 255 in Survey No.127 at Habeeb Fathimanagar, Boaraband, Hyderabad in the name of the said school, vide its sale agreement dated 17-02-2000 and subsequently the same was registered vide its registered document No.4299/01 in the office of the Sub-Registrar, R.R. District. From the date of its purchase, the said society has been in peaceful possession and enjoyment of the property in question. The necessary house property tax has also been paid on 20-11-2001 and 20-12-2001 to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad. Further, it is submitted that the property in question was acquired by the vendors and predecessors-in-title of the petitioner by way of assignment Form ‘D’ patta granted on 25-01-1990 by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Hyderabad. The vendors of the petitioner sold the property to the said society only after expiry of the stipulated period of ten years, mentioned under clause 8 of the Patta Certificate. Therefore, the petitioner submitted that none of the terms and conditions of grant of assignment patta Form ‘D’ have been violated and the said society has purchased the property in question under legally valid transaction and for lawful consideration. It is further submitted by the petitioner that at present the school is being run in a rented premises since 1992 and the landlord is now pressing hard to vacate the same as he wants to sell the premises. In such circumstances, the society wanted to take up some construction in the property in question for which, the society has approached the Municipal authorities for approval of house plan and it was informed by the authorities that no approval is necessary in the slum areas. Therefore, the petitioner society started the construction. After raising few columns, the work was got stopped by the respondent authorities on the ground that they have received a complaint stating that the construction is going on, on a Government land. Thereafter, the authorities have deputed the Revenue Inspector on 08-12-2001 and the Deputy Tahsildar on 15-12-2001 for verification and during the course of verification, even though the petitioner has produced his title documents, the respondent authorities have ordered not to proceed with any further construction, otherwise, the same will be demolished. Assailing the same, the petitioner has come up with the present writ petition seeking a direction to the respondent authorities not to interfere with the peaceful possession and enjoyment of the property in question. On behalf of the respondent, counter affidavit has been filed stating that the Survey No.127 of Yousufguda village is classified as poramboke and the same was assigned to weaker section families to provide houses to them. It is also submitted that the assigned land cannot be alienated by way of sale, or transfer under the A.P. Assigned lands (POT) Act, 1977. As such, illegal transaction does not accrue any valid title to the purchasers and the said lands are liable to be resumed into the Government custody under the provisions of the said Act. It is further averred from the counter that the petitioner has illegally purchased Government land, which was assigned to the poor people for construction of their houses. But the petitioner with a mala fide intention to knock away the valuable Government land, by taking the advantage of their poverty that were assigned to houseless poor families for a meager amount, taken up construction of school building without obtaining any required permissions from the revenue and municipal authorities. Further submission of the respondent is that during the month of November, 2001 the Executive staff of the respondent noticed some unauthorized construction over the Government land, hence the men at site were asked to produce the documents in support of their claim and in the meanwhile, instructed them not to proceed with further construction. In this connection, the person at site informed the respondent that he purchased the said land under a registered sale deed and he will produce the documents within weekdays, but he failed to do so. However, he stopped further construction at that time. Subsequently in the month of December, 2001 he filed the present writ petition by suppressing the facts before this Court and sought directions against the respondent not to interfere with the unauthorized construction being made by the petitioner. It is further case of the respondent that in fact, it was noticed that the petitioner purchased the land in question under unregistered agreement of sale deed dated 17-02-2000 and taken up construction of school building. When the executive staff of the respondent asked him to produce the documents, in support of his right for taking up construction, the petitioner has not furnished any documents, at that time, and later on, he got registration of the said property on 24-12- 2001, vide document No.4299 of 2001, i.e. after construction work was started and approached the Court suppressing the facts with a mala fide intention to construct the building under the guise of interim direction of this Court. Eventually, the respondent has submitted that the petitioner has violated the assignment rules and prayed to dismiss the writ petition. Admittedly, the property in question is assigned property. The main contention of the petitioner is that the school is being run in a slum area and catering to the needs of education of slum people where there is no school facility. Eventually, it is not in dispute that the petitioner has purchased the land in question and the disputed fact is only that the petitioner has violated the terms and conditions of A.P. Assigned Lands (POT) Act, 1977. Therefore, the petitioner has no legally valid title under the eye of law. The stand of the petitioner appears to be that according to the ‘D’ form patta certificate at clause 8, the assigned land can be alienated after a period of ten years and the property in question was assigned on 25-01-1990 and the same was purchased on 24-12-2001 i.e. after ten years. Therefore, the contention of the petitioner is that he did not violate any of the terms and conditions of the A.P. Assigned Lands (POT) Act, 1977. So far as the aspect of permission is concerned, it is the contention of the petitioner that no permission is required to construct school building in a slum area. Therefore, he started construction of the school building. On inspecting the land in question, the respondent authorities found that the same is an assigned land and that the petitioner failed to produce any documents, at that time, therefore, the petitioner was directed to stop further construction, otherwise, the same will be demolished and eventually, it is admitted that the petitioner has got registered the property in question. But it appears on the face of the record that the competent authority has not passed any orders in the matter. The respondent authority, under the relevant Act, is vested with the powers and expected to exercise their powers in accordance with law and pass appropriate orders, which had not happened in the instance case. Without passing any orders, pointing out the reasons of violation by the petitioner under any particular Act, the petitioner cannot be restrained from doing any legal action in accordance with law. Therefore, I am of the view that the writ petition can be disposed of with the following direction. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, the writ petition is disposed of with a liberty to the respondent authorities to pass appropriate orders, pointing out the violations, if any, of the terms and conditions under the Act, after giving an opportunity to the petitioner in accordance with law. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs. _________________________ JUSTICE G. CHANDRAIAH Date: 18-04-2009 LSK