THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU WRIT PETITION NO : 1601 of 2005 Dated: 19.11.2010 Between: 1. Neelam Malayadri and others .... PETITIONERS AND 1 The District Collector, Nellore and others. .....RESPONDENTS The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU WRIT PETITION NO : 1601 of 2005 ORDER: This writ petition is filed seeking to direct the respondents not to evict the petitioners from their lands and not to assign, lease out or alienate or in any way interfere with their lands situated in Gumparlapadu village. The fact that the petitioners were assignees of certain small extents of land is not in dispute. It is also not in dispute that earlier they have filed W.P.No.1265/1977 when they were sought to be dispossessed from their lands and the said writ petition was allowed directing the respondents to make an enquiry after issuing notice to the petitioners and giving an opportunity to them to adduce evidence in support of their contention, if they so choose. However, according to the petitioners, no such enquiry was conducted for about 28 long years. In the meanwhile, in the year 2005 when there was a massive assignment programme undertaken by the State Government, the lands of the petitioners were also again included for the purpose of granting pattas in favour of third parties. Therefore, the present writ petition is filed. While admitting the writ petition on 3.2.2005, the respondents were directed not to interfere with the possession of the petitioners in respect of the lands in question without following due process of law. In the counter filed by the respondents, it is stated that though it is a fact that this Court had allowed W.P.No.1265/1977 on 13.12.1977 and directed them to issue notices to the sons of the original assignees, it could not be done, as their addresses were not known to the people of Gumparlapadu Village and that some landed ryots, who are the present enjoyers of the above assigned lands, had not come forward to furnish the information of the present addresses of original assignees or their legal heirs and that is the reason why notices were not served on the original assignees or their legal heirs. It is further stated that as the petitioners are not residing in the village, the Village Servant returned the notices with his endorsement that the names of the original assignees or their legal heirs are not found in voters list, list of ration cards in F.P. Shop Gumparlapadu village, and that there are no residential houses of the petitioners in the village, and in the Velugu Survey Programme,, it is held proved that they are not residing in the village and even in the present writ petition, the petitioners have not given any residential addresses of the said village. This approach made by the respondents is liable to be deprecated. It is not much difficult for them to find out the present addresses of the petitioners, if any they have suppressed. It is not their case that no other relatives of the petitioners are residing in the village. In fact, the petitioners asserted in the affidavit filed in this case that they are residing in the village even as on today and they have been going for coolie work to the other places and returning immediately after season is over and they are residing in the village and they have their ration cards and their names also were found in the voters’ list. In those circumstances, I am of the opinion that the approach made by the respondents is pedantic and not realistic and if they are not able to serve any notice, they could have issued some paper publication in the local newspaper calling for objections etc. No such approach was made. When the scheme was evolved by the State Government, immediately the respondents identified the lands in question for the purpose of allotting the same to the fresh beneficiaries. For all the above reasons, the writ petition is allowed and the respondents are directed not to interfere with the peaceful possession and enjoyment of the lands in question by the petitioners. However, this will not preclude the respondents from conducting a detailed enquiry as directed in W.P. No.1265/1977 after issuing notices to the petitioners for their personal appearance and hearing them personally as per law. No order as to costs. ____________________ Justice C.V. Ramulu Dated:19.11.2010 Nn. THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU WRIT PETITION NO : 1601 of 2005 19.11.2010