IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF ANDHRA PRADESH: HYDERABAD THURSDAY, THE TWENTY FIFTH DAY OF FEBRUARY TWO THOUSAND AND TEN PRESENT: THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE R. SUBHASH REDDY WRIT PETITION No.3656 OF 2010 BETWEEN: A. Ramesh S/o. S.V. Subba Rao and others …. Petitioners AND The Project Director and Special Collector, Outer Ring Road Project, Tarnaka, Hyderabda and others …. Respondents THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE R. SUBHASH REDDY WRIT PETITION No.3656 OF 2010 ORDER: The petitioners have filed this writ petition seeking to declare the action of respondent No.2 - the Special Deputy Collector (LA), Unit-V, Outer Ring Road Project, Hyderabad in passing the Award No.3/2006 in proceedings No.LA/Unit-V/28-ORR/05 dated 18-04-2008 and Award No.6/2008 in proceedings No.11/LA/Unit-V/ORR/2005 dated 03-05-2008, as illegal, arbitrary and opposed to the compensation package announced under G.O.Ms.No.14, dated 18-12- 2006 and consequently to set aside the above awards in so far as the rights of the petitioners are concerned and to direct respondent No.2 to pass a fresh consent award by fixing the rate as fixed by respondent No.3 - the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority under the package. 2. All the petitioners herein are claimed to be the owners of various plots covering the extents ranging from 240 square yards to 1200 square yards covered by survey Nos.307, 308, 320, 322 to 329 & 348 situate at Dommarapochampally Village, Qutubullapur Mandal, Ranga Reddy District and they have purchased the said lands within the approved layout as approved by the Grampanchayat. The respondents have notified the lands of the petitioners along with other lands for the purpose of constructing Outer Ring Road. The Government has given certain compensation packages to the land loosers under G.O.Ms.No.14 Infrastructure & Investment (IID-2) Department, dated 18-12-2006 and different packages are notified for different category of lands, which includes, for the approval of unauthorized layouts in the Grampanchayat. 3. It is the grievance of the petitioners that though they are the owners of the said lands, which are within the approved layout, no notices were issued to them while passing the award in Award Nos.3/2006 and 6/2008. The said awards are questioned mainly on the ground that they were not given any opportunity to participate in the award enquiry and arbitrarily the respondents have fixed the market value of the lands at Rs.500/- per square yard for fixing the compensation. It is also the case of the petitioners that only on the ground that they did not appear before the Land Acquisition Officer, the awards were passed and the matters were referred to Civil Court under Sections 30 and 31 of the Land Acquisition Act. 4. When this writ petition was listed on 18-02-2010, the matter was adjourned to enable the learned Standing Counsel for Outer Ring Road to obtain instructions. 5. The learned Standing Counsel for Outer Ring Road, on instructions, submitted that notices were not served on the petitioners because their names were not reflected in the Revenue Records and that the Government has given a package to the land loosers in the Outer Ring Road project, but such package was not extended to the petitioners, as they have not approached the competent authorities. He further submitted that the respondent authorities are ready to extend the package benefits to the petitioners also, as per their entitlement. 6. In view of the submissions made by the learned Standing Counsel, appearing for the Outer Ring Road, before this Court that notices were not issued to the petitioners before passing the impugned awards and that now they are willing to extend the compensation package to the petitioners, the Award No.3/2006 in proceedings No.LA/Unit-V/28-ORR/05 dated 18-04-2008 and Award No.6/2008 in proceedings No.11/LA/Unit-V/ORR/2005 dated 03-05-2008 are set aside to the extent of plots owned by the petitioners only and consequently there shall be a direction to the respondents to consider the claims of the petitioners, as they are expressing their consent to receive the compensation package and pass appropriate award accordingly, as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of two (2) months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. 7. Subject to the above, the Writ Petition is allowed. There shall be no order as to costs. _____________________ R. SUBHASH REDDY, J February 25, 2010. KTL