IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 20315 of 2006 Between: 1 Athkuri Akkabayamma, W/o. Late Kondal Rao, R/o. Chirivada (Village) Bapulapadu (M), Krishna District. 2 Athkuri Krishna Rao, S/o.Late Kondal Rao, R/o. Chirivada (Village) Bapulapadu (M), Krishna District. 3 Smt. Nakka Ratnakumari, D/o. Late Kondal Rao, R/o. Chirivada (Village) Bapulapadu (M), Krishna District. 4 A. Kutumba Rao, S/o. Late Kondal Rao, R/o. Chirivada (Village) Bapulapadu (M), Krishna District. 5 Smt. Bodi Prameela Rani, D/o. Late Kondal Rao, R/o. Chirivada (Village) Bapulapadu (M), Krishna District. 6 Devambotla Mangathayaru, W/o. Late Rama Rao, R/o. Pedalingala (Vill) Nandivada (M), Krishna District. 7 Rayasam Trivikrama Rao, S/o. Late Tirumala Rao, R/o. C/o. D. mangathayaru, pedalingala (V), nandivada (M), Krishna District. ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 The Divisional Fores Oficer, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 2 Forest Range Officer, Nuzivid, Krishna District. 3 Dy. Forest Range Officer, Vissannapet, Krishna 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 writ of direction preferably writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents and their staﬀ in taking steps to dispossess the petitioners from the land admeasuring Ac.72-71 cents in Sy.Nos. 355,1,355-3, 355-6-; 355-7 and 355-4 situated at Somavaram (V) Chatral (M) Krishna District, without issuing any notice and without intiating any proceeding as illegal, arbitrary and violative of principles of natural justice and consequently direct the respondents and their staﬀ not to dispossess the petitioners from the said land in any manner. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.KOWTURU VINAYA KUMAR Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR FORESTS The Court made the following : ORDER The petitioners claim to be owners and possessors of Ac.12.38 cents in Sy.Nos.355/1, 355/3, 355/6, Ac.44.57 cents in Sy.No.335/7 and Ac.15.76 cents in Sy.No.355/4 of Somavaram Village. It is the grievance of the petitioners that 2nd and 3rd respondents are trying to interfere with their possession without following the due process of law. Sri Athkuri Krishna Rao has sworn to the writ aﬃdavit. Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the writ aﬃdavit need to be noted and they are thus: “I submit now the present writ petition is being ﬁled aggrieved by the impugned action of the respondents and their staﬀ in interfering with our possession even though Forest Department has no right in respect of our land. I submit as stated supra, the subject matter of the land is purely private patta land and forest department has nothing to do with our land. I submit, the Revenue authorities, as stated supra after thorough veriﬁcation have issued patta pass books and title deeds to us. I submit, earlier as the revenue oﬃcials were interfering with our possession we have approached this Hon’ble Court and obtained directions in this regard. Thereafter, there was no interference by the revenue oﬃcials, but now the forest oﬃcials are creating problems to us without any authority whatsoever. I submit during last week of August 2006 the forest oﬃcials attached to the oﬃce of respondents 2 and 3 came to the land and claimed part of the land is forest land. I submit at any event without issuing any notice and without providing any opportunity to us there is no justiﬁcation on the part of the forest oﬃcials in interfering with our possession. I submit they are also trying to dispossess us from the said land in which event we will be put to great hardship. I submit the forest people may create further problems in this regard. I submit the impugned action of the respondents and their staﬀ in interfering with our possession and taking steps to take possession of part of the land without issuing any notice to us and without initiating any proceedings as per law is illegal, arbitrary and violative of principles of natural justice. I submit as stated supra we are the absolute owners and forest department has no right whatsoever in respect of the said land.” The respondents ﬁled counter-affidavit. Sri B.S.Prabhakar Rao has sworn to the counter-affidavit. It is stated in the counter-aﬃdavit that the notiﬁcation under Section 4 (1) of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act, 1967 (for short ‘the Act’) has been issued to treat Sy.No.355 as reserve forest and therefore, the petitioners cannot be permitted to be in possession of the said land. Paragraph No.2 of the counter- affidavit needs to be noted and it is thus: “In reply to para 2 of the aﬃdavit, it is respectfully submitted that, the averments made by the petitioner herein are not correct to say that the respondents are solely and absolute owners of the land as was stated in the petition. T he brief history of the facts of the reserve forest block is submitted herewith for favour of kind perusal. History of the forest block: After abolition of the Estate Act 1948, the revenue authorities have handed over the areas with the following RS.Nos to the Forest Department for constitution of Somavaram Forest Block under Andhra Pradesh Forest Act, 1967 as detailed below. Sl. No. Name of the RS No. T otal area as notified as forest in ACS. Block Mandal Village Old New . Somavaram Forst Block Chatrai Somavaram 89 409 334.57 550 461.00 354 133 558 70 355 128.43 552 2.50 553 1.10 554 0.90 557 0.50 T OT AL 1132.00 The above forest block was notiﬁed under Seciton (4) of Andhra Pradesh Act 1967 vide G.O.Ms.1489, F & AG (FOR.III) Department, dated 13.08.1969 and it was published in Andhra Pradesh Gazette on 4.9.1969 and in District Gazette on 9.8.1969 and 10.05.1982 (copy enclosed). Accordingly, under Section (6) of Andhra Pradesh Forest Act 1967, the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer, Kakinada (A person appointed to be a Forest Settlement Oﬃcer under clause ‘c’ of sub section (1) shall be an oﬃcer of the Revenue Department not below the rank of a Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer) issued proclamation with the following remarks duly counter signing the boundaries, areas and total extent of Forest Block which is proposed to be reserved under Section (4) of Andhra Pradesh Forest Act, 1967. A copy of the above proclamation issued by the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer along with the Block Map are enclosed herewith for favour of kind perusal. Whereas a notiﬁcation had been issued under section (4) of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act 1967 by the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer duly publishing the said Forest Block areas have proposed to be declared as Reserve Forest in the regional language in every town, village and at the head quarters of each taluk and made available at the oﬃce of the Gram Panchayat, in which any portion of the land included in the said notiﬁcation is situated where the said assets are located calling objections if any from any individual or a person who is interested against the declaration within a period of one year from the date of publishing of proclamation. The Forest Settlement Oﬃcer had issued the said notification with the following remarks. 1) There are no enclosures proposed to be admitted within the Block. 2) There are no rights of way proposed to be admitted within the Forest Block. It is also submitted that a Joint Inspection was conducted by the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer, Nellore and District Forest Oﬃcer, Khammam on 8.11.1973 wherein they have not recorded any encroachments, or any claims regarding patta lands in respect of above survey Nos. except mentioning RS.No.558 of Somavaram Village as patta land. It is evidence from the above, the RS.No.355 with an extent of area ie., 128.43 Acres was declared to be as Reserve Forest and it had been physically under the control of Forest Department since 1969. Hence the question of ownership of the petitioners herein does not holds any valid ground. The contention of the petitioners herein that they are absolute owner and pattadars is baseless and not true.” Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for Forest appearing for the respondents. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioners submits that the petitioners are owners and possessors of Ac.12.38 cents in Sy.No.355/1, 355/3, 355/6, Ac.44.57 cents in Sy.No.335/7 and Ac.15.76 cents in Sy.No.355/4 of Somavaram Village. They also secured pattadar pass books from the revenue authorities and their possession has been incorporated in the pattadar pass books. The leaned counsel submits that the petitioners are not put on notice in the proceedings initiated under the provisions of the Act. Learned Government Pleader for Forest appearing for the respondents submits that 4 (1) notiﬁcation has been issued on 13.8.1969 and no objections have been ﬁled by the petitioners and ﬁnal notiﬁcation, as provided under Section 15 of the Act is yet to be issued. Under Section 4 of the Act, a notiﬁcation in Andhra Pradesh Gazette is required to be published in case of declaration of any forest land as reserve forest. In the event of any objections being ﬁled, the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer shall consider the objection and enquire into every claim made under Section 6 of the Act and after completion of the enquiry, a notiﬁcation under Section 15 of the Act is required to be published in the Andhra Pradesh Gazette. For better appreciation, I may refer to Sections 4, 8 and 15 of the Act, which reads as hereunder: 4.Notiﬁcation by Government: (1) Whenever it is proposed to constitute any land as a reserved forest, the Government shall publish a notiﬁcation in the Andhra Pradesh Gazette and in the District Gazette concerned in any; (a) Specifying, as nearly as possible, the situation and limits of such land; (b) Declaring that it is proposed to constitute such land as reserved forest; (c) Appointing a Forest Settlement Oﬃcer to consider the objections, if any, against the declaration under Clause (b) and to enquire into and determine the existence, nature and extent of any rights claimed by, or alleged to exist in favour of, any person in or cover any land comprised within such limits, or to any forest produce of such land, and to deal with the same as provided in this chapter. 8.Inquiry by Forest Settlement Oﬃcer: (1) T he Forest Settlement Oﬃcer shall consider every objection and inquire into every claim made under Section 6, after recording in writing the statements made or evidence given in pursuance of the proclamation published or notice served under that section. He shall record any representation which the forest oﬃcer, if any, representing the Forest Department under sub-section (3) of Section 4, may make in respect of any such objection or claim. (2) T he evidence under sub-section (1) shall be recorded in the manner provided by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 in appealable cases. 15. Notiﬁcation declaring Forest reserved: (1) Upon the occurrence of the following events namely; (a) the period fixed under Section 6 for preferring of an objection or a claim had elapsed, and every objection or claim made under that section was disposed of by the Forest Settlement Officer; and (b) if any such claim was made, the period limited by Section 13 for preferring an appeal from the order passed on such claim had elapsed, and every appeal presented within such period was disposed of by the appellate authority; and (c) all proceedings mentioned in Section 10 were taken and all lands, if any, to be included in the proposed forest, which the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer had, under Section 10, elected to acquire under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, had become vested in the Government under Section 16 of that Act; the Government may publish a notiﬁcation specifying deﬁnitely according to the boundary marks erected or otherwise, the limits of the forest which it is intended to reserve and declaring the same to be reserved from a date to be ﬁxed by such notiﬁcation and from the date so ﬁxed, such forest shall be deemed to be a reserved forest. (2) Copies of the notiﬁcation shall also be published in the District Gazette, if any, and in the manner provided for the proclamation under Section 6. Indisputably, no notiﬁcation declaring Sy.No.355 as reserve forest has been issued so far. In that view of the matter, I deem it appropriate to direct the petitioners to ﬁle their objections to the 4 (1) notification, dated 13.08.1969, before the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer within a period of four weeks and thereafter, the Forest Settlement Oﬃcer shall conduct the enquiry, as provided under Section 8 of the Act, before issuing ﬁnal notiﬁcation under Section 15 of the Act. Status quo existing as on this day with regard to possession of the land shall be maintained till the notiﬁcation under Section 15 of the Act is issued. Accordingly, writ petition is disposed of. No costs. _________ 14-10-2008 Note: Issue CC by Monday. (B.O) rkk