IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTY SECOND DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 5197 of 2002 Between: Andhra Pradesh Judicial Employees Co-op.House Building Society Ltd., Rep. by its President, B.Kantha Rao, S/o.B. Venkat Rao (Late), age. 48, Occ.Service Working in District Judge Court, Sangareddy, R/o. 3-5-64/A/2, New Income-tax Office, Sangareddy. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The District Collector, Sangareddy, Medak District and others. .....RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.M.RAMA RAO Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR Revenue (ASSIGNMENT ) CVNR,J W.P. NO.5197 OF 2002 The Court made the following Order: This writ petition is ﬁled for a Writ of Mandamus to set aside G.O. Ms. No. 250, dated 29.4.2000 and direct the respondents to re-ﬁx the market value of the land allotted to the petitioner society on par with the price ﬁxed in G.O. Ms. No. 720, dated 31.7.1993. Heard Sri M. Rama Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Revenue (Assignments) for the respondents and perused the record. The petitioner-society is a Cooperative Society consisting of judicial employees of Medak District as its members. On the intervention of District and Sessions Judge, Respondent No.1 allotted an extent of 4.00 acres of land in Survey No. 374/1 of Rajampet Village in favour of the petitioner-society for the purpose of house sites. A perusal of the letter addressed by the Respondent No.1 to the Tahsildar, Sangareddy on 21.2.1982 shows that possession of the said land was directed to be handed over to the society after collecting the nominal market value of Rs. 2/- subject to ﬁnalisation of market value by the Government. It is not in dispute that in pursuance of the said letter, possession was handed over to the petitioner-society and its members are in possession of the said land. The petitioner’s grievance is that despite the persistent eﬀorts made by it, the respondents have not taken steps to ﬁx the market value till the year 2000 when G.O. Ms. No. 250, dated 29.4.2000 was issued by the State Government, wherein it ﬁxed the market value at Rs. 250/- per sq. yard. The petitioner alleged discrimination by pointing out that in respect of an extent of Acs. 2.20 guntas, which is situated adjacent to the land allotted to the petitioner-society in the same survey number, the State Government vide G.O. Ms. No. 720, dated 31.7.1993 ﬁxed the market value at Rs.20/- per sq. yard to be paid by the Medak District Survey, Settlement and Land Records Cooperative House Building Society. In the counter aﬃdavit ﬁled by the Joint Secretary to Government, Revenue Department, it is inter alia averred that in reply to the letter dated 27.4.1983 addressed by the Tahsildar, Sangareddy to the President of the Petitioner-society, the President submitted a representation on 30.5.1983 to consider ﬁxing of market value at Rs. 2/- per sq. yard, that the petitioner society has not submitted its consent for payment of market value prevailing at that time, that on the basis of the revised proforma for submission of proposals ﬁxed by the Government, the Tahsildar, Sangareddy was requested to send proposals by the Districts Collector vide his letter dated 13.6.1985 and that in response to the notice issued by the Tahsildar, the President of the petitioner-society submitted letter dated 16.5.1986 wherein he gave consent to pay the land value at the same price as was ﬁxed by the Government for other employees of the societies and in his further reply to the District Collector’s letter dated 10.6.1986, the President of the petitioner-society communicated the readiness of the employees to pay the market value as ﬁxed by the Government with a further request to the Government to consider the rate ﬁxed for other societies while ﬁxing the market value. It is further stated that thereafter the Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer, Sangareddy vide his letter dated 4.8.1990 submitted proposals for alienation @ Rs.20/- per sq. yard and the District Collector who received the said proposals forwarded the same to the Commissioner, Land Revenue vide his letter dated 14.12.1990. It is further stated that on 9.4.1996, the Commissioner asked the District Collector to send regular proposals with sale statistics as per the present basic register of market value as on 1.4.1995, that the Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer vide his letter dated 14.11.1997 submitted sale statistics from May 1993 to 1996 indicating that the prevailing market value was ranging from Rs. 200/- to Rs.300/- per sq. yard and that the District Collector recommended to the Commissioner to ﬁx the market value at Rs. 200/ per sq. yard vide his letter dated 14.11.1997. It is further averred that thereafter the Commissioner, Land Revenue in his proceedings dated 13.12.1997, recommended the proposals for alienation in pursuance of which the Government issued the impugned G.O. by alienating the land at Rs. 250/- per sq. yard. It is stated that though the Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer recommended for alienation at Rs. 20/- per sq. yard, since the President of the petitioner-society repeatedly represented to the District Collector, to ﬁx the market value at Rs. 2/- per sq. yard, the alienation proposals could not be finalized earlier. The fact that the President of the petitioner-society who earlier requested for alienation of land at Rs.2/- per sq. yard has subsequently given willingness on behalf of the members of the petitioner-society for payment of the land value at the market value to be ﬁxed by the Government is admitted. The respondents also admitted that in respect of the neighbouring land, which was allotted to the members of Medak District Survey, Settlement and Land Records Cooperative House Building Society, the market value of the land was ﬁxed at Rs.20/- per sq. yard in G.O. Ms. 720, dated 31.7.1993. In the face of these admitted facts, it is not comprehensible as to how the respondents could ﬁx the market value at Rs. 250/- per sq. yard on the basis of the value prevailing in the year 1995. From the facts pleaded by the respondents in the counter aﬃdavit ﬁled on their behalf, it is clear that the alienation proposals sent by the District Collector in the year 1990 were kept in hibernation in the Commissioner’s oﬃce till the year 1995. No explanation is forthcoming for the inordinate delay in the ﬁnalisation of the proposals. The respondents also failed to give any explanation whatsoever for the invidious discrimination shown between the petitioner and the employees of the Medak District Survey, Settlement and Land Records Cooperative House Building Society. In the absence of such an explanation, it is only reasonable to presume that the respondents have shown a biased attitude against the petitioner-society for the reasons which cannot be fathomed by this Court. The action of the respondents, thus, clearly falls foul of the equality clause enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution of India. When admittedly the market value of the neighbouring land, which was evidently allotted ten years after the land was allotted to the petitioner-society was ﬁxed at Rs. 20/- per sq. yard, there is no justiﬁcation whatsoever for the respondents to ﬁx Rs. 250/- per sq. yard for the land allotted to the petitioner-society. If at all, lesser value should have been ﬁxed for the petitioner-society, as the allotment in its favour was much prior to the allotment of land in favour of the Medak District Survey, Settlement and Land Records Cooperative House Building Society. At any rate, there can be no justiﬁcation for ﬁxing a higher market value than the market value fixed for the said society. For the above mentioned reasons, the writ petition is allowed and G.O. Ms. No. 250, dated 29.4.2000 is quashed. The respondents are directed to ﬁx the same market value for the land allotted to the petitioner as was ﬁxed in respect of the neighbouring land in Survey No. 374/1 allotted to the Medak District Survey, Settlement and Land Records Cooperative House Building Society vide G.O. Ms. No. 720,dated 31.7.1993 and pass appropriate orders within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. ___________________________ C.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY,J DATE: 22nd October, 2008 pnb