HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU W.P.No. 10269 of 2008 Date: 28-10-2010 Between: Kampasati Annapoorna ……….. Petitioner and The Station House Officer, Chintalapudi Police Station and another ………. Respondents HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU W.P.No. 10269 of 2008 ORDER: This writ petition is filed seeking a Mandamus declaring action of the respondents in registering criminal cases against petitioners in Crime Nos.55 of 2007, 60 of 2007, 67 of 2007, 68 of 2007 and 54 of 2008 on various dates with the first respondent in relation to the land in an extent of Ac.50-00 in Sy.No.26 of Namavaram village, Chintalapudi Mandal, West Godavari District, as illegal, arbitrary and violative of Articles 21 and 300-A of the Constitution of India. 2. According to the petitioners, their grandmother, by name Doppasani Rattamma W/o. late Veeraiah, was the owner of an extent of Ac.70-00 of agricultural land in Pattayagudem village, Chintalapudi Mandal, West Godavari District. The petitioners, after leaving an extent of Ac.20-00 to their grandmother, divided the remaining land among themselves and their grandmother executed a Will on 16-08-1999 followed by a deed of settlement on 03-10-2005 and registered the same confirming the extent of land held by them. They applied to the Mandal Revenue Officer, Chintalapudi, for issuance of pattedar passbooks and title deeds for the said land and the Mandal Revenue Officer, Chintalapudi, after enquiry, issued the same to them in the year 2003 and those passbooks were endorsed by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Eluru. They obtained loan of Rs.90,000/- from the Seethanagaram Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society Limited, Seethanagaram, Chintalapudi Mandal, West Godavari District, for digging bore well and dug the same. They have raised banana plants in the said land in some extent and also raised oil palm plantation in the remaining extent. Their grandmother died on 01-06-2006. 3. The Revenue Divisional Officer, Eluru, served the first petitioner herein with a xerox copy of the proceedings, dated 13-12- 2004 canceling the pattedar passbooks and title deeds issued in their favour earlier by the Mandal Revenue Officer, Chintalapudi. Therefore, they were constrained to file W.P.No.24975 of 2004 challenging the said order and this Court disposed of the same by setting aside the said order, on the sole ground of violation of principles of natural justice. Again, when the Revenue Divisional Officer, Eluru, without looking into the affidavit filed in the earlier writ petition and ignoring his jurisdiction, passed an order on 27-06-2005 canceling the pattedar passbooks, the same was challenged in W.P.No.15571 of 2005 and this Court again set aside the said order on 19-07-2005 and directed the fourth respondent therein to consider the case of the petitioners and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law. Thus, twice they have approached this Court against the illegal orders passed by the Revenue Divisional Officer, Eluru. When some private parties illegally entered into their land and caused loss of nearly Rs.40 lakhs by chopping of banana plants and oil palm plants, they gave a complaint in Chintalapudi Police Station, which was registered as Crime No.151 of 2006, dated 26-09-2006. They have also filed W.P.No.20844 of 2006 challenging the action of the Mandal Revenue Officer, Chintalapudi, and when the same was dismissed on 27-10-2006, they filed W.A.No.1175 of 2006 and the same was allowed by a Division Bench of this Court on 08-11-2006. In spite of the same, the fourth respondent has not passed any order so far. 4. While that being so, when respondents 1 to 3 herein are trying to interfere with their land in the guise of handing over a part of the land to Vana Samrakshna Samithi of Namavaram, they have again filed W.P.No.23831 of 2006 before this Court and respondents 1 to 3 filed a counter, part of which reads as under: “The Namavaram Vana Samrakshana Samiti was formed in 1995 with the area of demarcated for them, then itself. The Respondents has nothing to do with R.S.No.26 of Namavaram which is totally outside the Reserve Forests. The site was not allotted to Namavaram Vana Samrakshana Samithi (Global positioning system (GPS) map is enclosed with marked portion indicating the subject land to which the petitioner are laying claim before the Hon’ble Court).” 5. Recording the said averment in the counter, the writ petition was disposed of on 13-04-2007. Thereafter, the petitioners made a representation to the District Collector, marking copies to respondents 1 to 3 herein, for demarcating the land by conducting a survey, but the respondents have not responded to the same till date. In the meanwhile, the forest department officials are trying to encroach upon the land of the petitioners without issuing any notice and to erect boundaries by digging deep line (trench) enclosing an extent of Ac.47- 00 leaving Ac.3-00. Then they were again constrained to file W.P.No.23203 of 2007 and this Court, while admitting the said writ petition, ordered status quo to be maintained, by order, dated 02-11- 2007. Thus the petitioners are in possession of the land to an extent of Ac.50-00. 6. Now the grievance of the petitioners is that pursuant to the crime, which was registered against them in Crime No.54 of 2008 on the complaint made by the forest officers, the police are trying to arrest them. 7. From the above facts, it is clear that there is some dispute between the forest department, revenue department, petitioners and some private parties and a survey has been ordered for identifying and demarcating the land of the forest department as well as the petitioners and others. At that stage, launching criminal prosecution, on the complaint purported to have been made by the forest department officials, is not desirable. I am of the opinion that the officials of the forest department have exceeded in exercising their powers seeking to prosecute the petitioners by filing a complaint in Crime No.54 of 2008 on the file of the Chintalapudi Police Station and, therefore, the same deserves to be quashed. 8. In the result, the writ petition is allowed. The complaint in Crime No.54 of 2008 on the file of Chintalapudi Police Station, lodged against the petitioners, is hereby quashed. However, it is made clear that this order will not preclude the forest department or any other officials from launching criminal prosecution, if any, against the petitioners, in future, as required under the law. No order as to costs. _____________ C.V. RAMULU, J Date: 28-10-2010 YCR