IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) SATURDAY, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO.663 of 2002 Between: Karri Tata Reddy S/o. Veer Reddy R/o. Ravulapalem, East Godavari District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Government of A.P., Rep. by its Secretary, Revenue (Endowments) Department, Secretariate Buildings, Hyderabad. 2 The Commissioner of Endowments, Government of A.P., Tilak Road, Hyderabad. 3 The Assistant Commissioner, Endowments, Rajahmundry, East Godavari District. 4 The District Collector, East Godavari district, Kakinada. 5 The Revenue Divisional Officer/ Land Acquisition Officer, Amalapuram, East Godavari District. 6 Bangaru Papamma Vari Devasthanam, Rep. by its Group Executive Officer, Mandapalli Village, Ravulapalem Mandal, East Godavari 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 an appropriate writ order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondent authorities in acquiring the lands Ac.3-45 cents Covered by RS.No.303/3 of Ravulapalem Village & Mandal, E.G.District, which is in the possession of the Petitioner as tenant in pursuance of the Gazettee notiﬁcation U/Sec.6 of the L.A.Act issued by the 4th respondent on 26.11.1999 is arbitrary, illegal, null and void, against to the Principles of natural justice and contrary to the provisions of L.A.Act and direct the respondents are acquire the above lands as the acquisition proceedings are already elapsed under the provisions of L.A.Act Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.G.KRISHNA MURTHY Counsel for the Respondent Nos.1 to 5: GP FOR REVENUE Counsel for the Respondent No.6: None appeared The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.663 of 2002 ORDER: This writ petition is ﬁled for a writ of mandamus to declare the action of the respondent authorities in acquiring the land admeasuring Ac.3.45 cents in R.S.No.303/3 of Ravulapalem Village and Mandal, East Godavari District as illegal. The petitioner, who claims to be a small farmer, averred that he is in possession of Ac.3.45 cents of land belonging to respondent No.6-temple and cultivating the same from the year 1968. In this writ petition, the petitioner questioned the initiation of land acquisition proceedings by issuing notiﬁcation dated 25.02.1999 under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short ‘the Act’) and declaration dated 26.02.1999 under Section 6 of the Act. At the hearing, the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Land Acquisition submitted that the last of the publications of declaration under Section 6 of the Act was made in the English daily “The Hindu” on 31.12.1999. She stated that the acquisition proceedings were not stayed by the competent court. A perusal of the proceeding sheet shows that on 18.04.2002 this Court granted interim direction to the respondents not to dispossess the petitioner. These facts clearly show that there was no impediment for the respondents to complete the acquisition proceedings by passing award. In other words, short of taking possession, the respondents were left free to complete the acquisition proceedings in all other respects. The learned Assistant Government Pleader, however, stated that no award has been passed within two years’ time stipulated under Section 11-A of the Act. The said provision envisages that the Collector shall make an award under Section 11 within two years from the date of publication of the declaration and if no award is made within that period, the entire proceedings for the acquisition of the land shall lapse. Under Section 6(2) of the Act, the last of the dates of publications envisaged therein shall be treated as the date of publication of declaration. As admitted by the respondents, the last of the publications was dated 31.12.1999 and the respondents failed to pass the award on or before 31.12.2001. In view of this admitted fact, the acquisition proceedings have lapsed on account of the mandate of the statute contained in Section 11-A of the Act. For the above mentioned reasons, it is declared that the acquisition proceedings in respect of the land admeasuring Ac.3.45 cents in R.S.No.303/3 of Ravulapalem Village and Mandal, East Godavari District, lapsed and the writ petition is accordingly allowed. C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Date: 15.11.2008 va