IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE THIRD DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 3070 of 2002 Between: 1 E.Narayana Rao S/o Sri Apparao, H.No. 1-9-295/27A, Vidyanagar, Hyderabad. 2 Smt. E.Sathi Devi, W/o late Sri E.Subba Rao H.No. 1-9-295/7/A Vidyanagar, Hyderbad. ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 The District Collector, Warangal. 2 Mandal Revenue Officer, Narsampet, Warangal District. 3 Revenue Divisional Officer, Narsampet, Warangal 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 will be pleased to issue any appropriate writ, order or direction more particularly a Writ of Mandamus and declare the action of the respondents in taking away the property of the petitioners in Survey No. 702/16 and 702/17 extent of Ac. 5.00 of Narsampet Village, Narsampet Mandal, Warangal District without due process of law and without paying any compensation as illegal, arbitrary, high handed, violative of Articles, 14 and 300 A of the Constitution of India and grant the consequential relief by directing the respondents to initiate proceedings under the provisions of the land Acquisition Act and pay compensation and other beneﬁts to petitioners and issue any other appropriate Writ, order or Direction as this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to deem fit and proper. Counsel for the Petitioners: MR.DANTU.SRINIVAS Counsel for the Respondent: G.P. for Land Acquisition The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition is ﬁled for a Writ of Mandamus to declare the action of the respondents in taking away the property admeasuring Acs.5.00 in Sy.Nos.702/16 and 702/17 of Narsampet Village, Narsampet Mandal, Warangal District belonging to the petitioners without following due process of law as illegal and unconstitutional. Heard Sri D. Srinivas, learned counsel for the petitioners and learned Assistant Government Pleader for Land Acquisition, and perused the record. The abovementioned extent of land is claimed to be belonging to the family of the petitioners. Proposals were made in the year 1986 for making use of the said land for providing house sites to Backward Caste people. The petitioners pleaded that their signatures were obtained on certain letters on the purported ground of rectiﬁcation of errors in the revenue records, and in the ﬁrst week of September 1992 the petitioners came to know that their lands were assigned for the abovementioned purpose. The petitioners thereafter ﬁled O.S.No.326 of 1992 on the ﬁle of the II Additional Sub-Judge, Warangal, for declaration of their title and for permanent injunction, which was later on transferred to the Court of Senior Civil Judge, Mahabubabad and renumbered as O.S.No.97 of 1996. The said suit was decreed on 8.04.1999 and during the pendency of the said suit the respondents granted pattas to more than 100 persons. The petitioners averred that after a long lapse of time, the respondents ﬁled appeal in this Court with condonation of delay and that the same is pending. The grievance of the petitioners is that though they were declared to be the lawful owners of the property, the respondents have deprived them of the same without following due process of law and paying compensation. In the counter aﬃdavit ﬁled by the Mandal Revenue Oﬃcer, Narsampet, he has pleaded that the land in Sy.No.702 is Government poramboke and that the husband of petitioner No.2- Ennamsetti Subba Rao, Ch. Chakradhar Rao and E. Narayana Rao relinquished their rights in the lands by Form ‘C’. He denied the allegation that the signatures of the said persons were obtained by misrepresentation. From the tenor of the averments contained in the counter aﬃdavit, it is clear that the respondents have set up the plea of absence of title in the petitioners and also purported relinquishment of their rights. The Senior Civil Judge, Mahabubabad, who disposed of O.S.No.97 of 1996 by judgment and decree dated 8.04.1999 speciﬁcally framed an issue in this regard vide issue No.4 and negatived the said contention. He decreed the suit declaring the title of the petitioners. At the hearing it has come out that the appeal, which was ﬁled in the year 1999, is numbered in the year 2008, i.e., after a lapse of nine years. This clearly shows the total lack of diligence on the part of the respondents in pursuing the appeal ﬁled against the abovementioned judgment and decree. The learned Assistant Government Pleader for Land Acquisition stated that the abovementioned judgment and decree has not been stayed by this Court so far. Though this Court adjourned the case from time to time from 25.09.2008, the respondents have not taken any steps to seek appropriate orders in the pending appeal. Therefore mere pendency of appeal should not result in continuous deprival of compensation to the petitioners whose title is declared by the civil Court. The petitioners cannot be deprived of the property without paying compensation as such an action constitutes blatant violation of the petitioners’ constitutional right under Article 300-A and also Article 31-A (1) of the Constitution of India. For the abovementioned reasons, the Writ Petition is allowed. The respondents are directed to initiate land acquisition proceedings in respect of Acs.5.00 of land in Sy.Nos.702/16 and 702/17 of Narsampet Village, Narsampet Mandal, Warangal District within a period of eight weeks and complete the same within a period of three months thereafter. 50% of compensation amount shall be paid to the petitioner and the balance 50% shall be kept in interest yielding deposit. In the event of the respondents succeeding in the pending appeal, they are entitled to recover 50% of compensation amount paid to the petitioners. ________________________ (C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, J.) 3rd November, 2008 Js.