IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) PRESENT: THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTY SECOND DAY OF OCTOBER, TWO THOUSAND EIGHT ONLY WRIT PETITION No.8233 of 2002 Between: All Poor Labour Society, Narasimharaopet, Tadepalligudem, reptd., by its President Sri Nunna Mutyalu, 80 yrs, Narasimharaopet, Tadepalligudem, West Godavari District. … Petitioner And The Government of A.P., reptd., by its Prl.Secretary, Revenue Department, Secretariat, Hyderabad and three others. … Respondents Counsel for the petitioners: Sri K.Ananda Rao. Counsel for the respondents: AGP for Land Acquisition. This Court made the following: ORDER:- This Writ Petition is ﬁled for a Writ of Mandamus to declare the inaction of the respondents in allotting house sites to the members of the petitioner-Society, as illegal and arbitrary. Heard Sri K.Ananda Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Land Acquisition, and perused the record. The petitioner-Society claims to have 650 members on its rolls belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and other Backward Classes. On the petitioner-Society approaching respondent No.3 for allotment of land for house sites to its members, respondent No.3 called for a report from respondent No.4. When respondentNo.3 did not ﬁnalize the issue of allotment of land, the petitioner ﬁled Writ Petition No.27128 of 1996 in this Court. The said Writ Petition was disposed of by this Court by order dated 31-3-1997, wherein respondent No.4 was directed to expedite and submit his report to respondent No.3 and respondent No.3 was directed to take suitable action in that regard. After a contempt case was ﬁled by the petitioner alleging non-compliance of the said direction, notiﬁcation under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short “the Act”) was issued on 18-2-1999 proposing to acquire an extent of Ac.23.29 cents of land belonging to Sri Bala Venkateswara Swamy Temple of Tallamudunurupadu village, Tadepalligudem. The grievance of the petitioner is that despite initiation of proceedings under the Act, the respondents have not concluded the acquisition proceedings and allotted the land to the petitioner-Society. In the counter-aﬃdavit ﬁled by respondent No.4 it is, inter alia, stated that the genuineness of the claims of the members of the petitioner- Society was veriﬁed by the Mandal Revenue Oﬃcer and report in that regard was sent to him and respondents 3 long back. He, however, stated that as the lands, which are proposed for acquisition, belong to the said temple, and are very valuable, the Government is not interested in purchasing the private land in view of availability of Government vacant land at the airﬁeld. It is further stated that an extent of Ac.82.61 cents of land at Kondruprolu village was proposed for house sites to weaker sections and that action in that regard has already been taken up by initiating enumeration and identification of eligible beneficiaries. In view of the stand referred to above taken by the respondents that alternative land (airﬁeld land) is identiﬁed for providing house sites, the Writ Petition is disposed of with the direction to respondents 3 and 4 to expedite the process of allotment of house sites to the petitioner- Society from out of the above mentioned identiﬁed land and complete the process of allotment within a period of three months from today. ------------------------- -------------- C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY,J Date:22-10-2008 MNR