THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE NOUSHAD ALI WRIT PETITION No.16944 OF 2008 Date: 07.12.2010 Between: Sri Surya Gangadhara Agro Farms ..... PETITIONER AND The District Collector, Guntur District at Guntur and others .....RESPONDENTS The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE NOUSHAD ALI WRIT PETITION No.16944 OF 2008 ORDER: The petitioner, who is an alienee of assigned land, has filed this writ petition seeking to declare the action of the respondents 2 and 3 in seeking to dispossess from the lands in pursuance of the orders dated 31.03.2007 and 18.01.2008 passed by the respondents 2 and 3 respectively, as illegal. 2. The petitioner claims to be a registered firm registered under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932. It is stated that the petitioner purchased an extent of Ac.77.10 cents of land in survey Nos.20DB, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E and 55/B3 of Kondakavur village, Narasaraopet Mandal, Guntur District under registered sale deeds during the year 1999. The petitioner obtained pattadar passbooks and title deeds in respect of the said land. The 3rd respondent, Tahsildar, Narasaraopet Mandal after issuing show cause dated 25.01.2007 in Form-I initiated proceedings, for eviction and resumption of the land under the provisions of the A.P.Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act, 1977 (for short, ‘the Act’), eventually passed the order dated 31.03.2007 directing resumption on the ground that the land purchased by the petitioner is assigned land. Aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner preferred an appeal before the 2nd respondent-Revenue Divisional Officer, Narasaraopet and the said appeal was also dismissed by order dated 18.01.2008. The petitioner challenged the said order by filing a revision petition before the 1st respondent-District Collector, Guntur as per the provisions of Section 4- B of the Act. It is stated that along with the revision petition the petitioner also filed a miscellaneous application seeking stay of the operation of the order of the appellate authority. The revision petition has been numbered as Revision Petition No.1 of 2008. Pending the said revision petition and the stay petition as well, the petitioner has filed this writ petition apprehending that on the failure of the 1st respondent either to grant stay or to dispose of the revision petition, he would be dispossessed from the land. This is a cause of action for filing the present writ petition. 3. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the counsel for the implead respondents, Government Pleader and also the counsel for the respondents 6 to 90. 4. Admittedly the petitioner has filed statutory remedy available to him by filing revision petition before the 1st respondent and the same is pending adjudication without being disposed of till date. Needless to say that the statutory authorities are under an obligation to discharge their functions, while dealing with the rights of the parties under the statutes expeditiously and without any unreasonable delay. The petitioner admittedly is in possession of the land. The remedy invoked by the petitioner being statutory, the 1st respondent ought to have decided the matter one way or other and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law. 5. In the circumstances, the 1st respondent-District Collector, Guntur is directed to dispose of the Revision Petition No.1 of 2008 (RC 546/8/E2) dated 16.02.2008 as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of six (6) weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. Since the rights of the petitioner are to be finally adjudicated in the revision petition and the petitioner being in possession till date, status quo obtaining as on today shall be maintained till the disposal of the revision petition. The Writ Petition is accordingly disposed of. No costs. _______________ NOUSHAD ALI, J 7th December 2010 Ivd