IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TWENTY FIRST DAY OF APRIL TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE GOPALAKRISHNA TAMADA Writ Petition No.6435 of 2008 Between: 1. Dereddy Yella Reddy, s/o Subba Reddy, 2. Dereddy Subba Reddy, s/o Yella Reddy, 3. N. Thirumalaiah, s/o Chinna Venkata Subbaiah, 4. N. Venkata Subbarayudu, s/o Chinna Venkata Subbaiah, 5. Challa Nadipi Ankanna, s/o Balanna, 6. Kaluri Mariamma, w/o Thimothy, 7. Kaluri Yesu Dasu, w/o Thimothy, 8 Gundam Ramana Reddy, s/o Venkat Reddy, 9. Gundam Venkateswara Reddy, s/o Sai Ramana Reddy, 10. G. Sai Ramana Reddy, s/o Papi Reddy, 11. D. Venkata Subba Reddy, s/o Nadipi Veera Reddy, 12. Kamsali Peda Maheswaraiah, s/o Chinna Mahanandaiah, 13. P. Ayyapu Reddy, s/o Hussain Reddy, 14. P. V. Narayana Reddy, s/o Subba Reddy, 15. C. Bhaskar Reddy, s/o Ramana Reddy, 16. Kaluri Danamma, w/o Devadanam, all are r/o Pulimaddi, Nandyal Mandal, Kurnool District. ... PETITIONERS AND 1. Special Deputy Collector, Srisailam Project, Kurnool. 2. Government of A.P. rep by its Secretary, Irrigation and CAD, Secretariat, Hyderabad. ...RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed herein the High Court may be pleased to issue, an order, direction or writ, more particularly one in the nature of writ of mandamus declaring that the notification dated 22-02-2008 issued by first respondent under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 is illegal, null and void and to set aside the same and to pass such other orders. Counsel for Petitioners: Mr. K. BALAGOPAL Counsel for Respondents: GP for PANCHAYAT RAJ & RURAL DEV. The Court made the following: ORDER: - According to petitioners, they are the absolute owners of various extents of land in S.Nos.410, 412, 414, 415, 416, 419 and 421 of Pulimaddi village in Nandyal Mandal. They live on agricultural works done in those lands. It is stated that a notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, ‘the Act’) was published on 22-02-2008 proposing to acquire a total extent of Acs.161-76 cents of land, including the land of the petitioners, for the purpose of providing mud for construction of the bund of Gorakallu reservoir on Srisailam Right Bank Canal. In the said notification, invoking the powers under Section 17(4) of the Act, enquiry as contemplated under Section 5-A of the Act was dispensed with. Questioning the said notification, the petitioners, who are the landowners of a total extent of about Acs.60-00 filed the present writ petition. 2. Heard Sri K. Balagopal, learned counsel for petitioners and learned Government Pleader for Land Acquisition for respondents. 3. It may not be necessary for this Court to go into the various contentions put forth by Sri K. Balagopal, learned counsel for petitioners and it is suffice to direct the Land Acquisition Officer to hold an enquiry as provided for under Section 5-A of the Act. No doubt, the Government is empowered to dispense with the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act invoking the powers under Section 17(4) of the Act, but the said dispensation has to be done only in rarest of the rare cases. When looked at this case, this Court is not satisfied that it is one of such rarest of the rare case. No doubt, as per the counter affidavit, the contract with the contractor was entered into long ago and the land was also proposed for the said purpose. When the contract was given in favour of the contractor long ago and there is a proposal for acquisition of the land for the said purpose i.e., for excavation of mud, it is not known as to why the notification under Section 4(1) of the Act was published only in the month of February, 2008 and the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act was dispensed with. 4. From the above it is clear that there is no urgency. The law on this aspect is very clear. The Supreme Court in UNION OF INDIA v. KRISHNA LAL ARNEJA[1] observed that in the absence of any material to show subjective satisfaction, urgency clause under Section 17(4) of the Act cannot be invoked. The relevant portion of the said judgment reads as under: “Section 17 confers extraordinary powers on the authorities under which it can dispense with the normal procedure laid down under Section 5-A of the Act in exceptional case of urgency. Such powers cannot be lightly resorted to except in case of real urgency enabling the Government to take immediate possession of the land proposed to be acquired for public purpose. A public purpose, however, laudable it may be, by itself is not sufficient to take aid of S.17 to use this extraordinary power as use of such power deprives a land owner of his right in relation to immovable property to file objections for the proposed acquisition and it also dispenses with the inquiry under S.5-A of the Act. The authority may have subjective satisfaction of the need for invoking urgency clause under S.17 keeping in mind the nature of the public purpose, real urgency that the situation demands and the time factor i.e, whether taking possession of the property can wait for a minimum period within which the objections could be received from the land owners and the inquiry under S.5-A of the Act could be completed.” 5. Accordingly, without going into the merits of the case and dealing with the contentions raised by the learned counsel for the petitioners, first respondent – Special Deputy Collector, Sri Sailam Project is hereby directed to hold an enquiry as provided for under Section 5-A of the Act, only insofar as the lands of the petitioners herein are concerned. It is needless to observe that the petitioners can raise all tenable objections before the Special Deputy Collector and on such objections being received, the said Officer will afford them an opportunity of personal hearing and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law. 6. With the above directions, the writ petition is disposed of at the stage of admission. No order as to costs. ________________________________ JUSTICE GOPALAKRISHNA TAMADA Dt.21-04-2008 GLV ASSITANT REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER Copy to: 1. The Special Deputy Collector, Srisailam Project, Kurnool. 2. The Secretary, Irrigation and CAD, Government of A.P., Secretariat, Hyderabad. 3. 2CCs to 4. 2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{LS} [1] AIR 2004 SC 3582