IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TWENTY SECOND DAY OF JANUARY TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM WRIT PETITION No.10473 OF 2006 Between: Mallareddi Yugandharanagar Venkatasai Seetharamaiah and another. ..... PETITIONERS AND The Revenue Divisional Officer, West Godavari District, Eluru, And another. ....RESPONDENTS THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM WRIT PETITION NO.10473 OF 2006 O R D E R The petitioners assail the notiﬁcation under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short ‘the Act’), proposing acquisition of Ac.3-48 cents of the petitioners’ lands in Sy.No.107/1 situated in Bommidi village, Ungutur Mandal, West Godavari District for provision of houses to the weaker sections. Urgency clause has been invoked under Section 17 of the Act and enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act has been dispensed with mechanically without due application of mind. The petitioners assail the notiﬁcation on several grounds including on the merits of acquisition as also on the ground that there was no rationale for invoking the urgency clause. The impugned notiﬁcation states that the acquisition is for the purpose of allotment of house-sites for weaker sections. This requirement is not of such an emergent nature as would justify invocation of the urgency clause and dispensing with the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act. The enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act is a salutary statutory provision intended for aﬀording a reasonable opportunity to the owners of lands to ﬁle objections to the acquisition on any relevant ground as they wish to submit. In the aforesaid analysis, the respondents are directed to issue a notice to the petitioners calling for their objections to the acquisition proposals. On considering the objections to be submitted by the petitioners, the competent authority shall pass appropriate orders thereon and take a decision under Section 5-A(2) of the Act. That decision shall be communicated to the petitioners by registered post with acknowledgment due and till then, no further proceedings for acquisition shall be initiated. The writ petition is disposed of as above at the stage of admission, after hearing the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for Land Acquisition. There shall however be no order as to costs. ------------------------------------- JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM 22ND JANUARY, 2007 PGS THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM WRIT PETITION NO.10473 OF 2006 22ND JANUARY, 2007