IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE TWENTY FOURTH DAY OF JULY TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE P.SWAROOP REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 3156 of 2002 Between: Surpanch Gramapanchayath, Rep. by its Surpanch, B.Somanna, T.SOMALAGUDUR (Village), Nandavaram Mandalam, Kurnool District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The District Collector, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh. 2 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Adoni, Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh. 3 The Mandal Revenue Officer, Nandavaram Mandalam, Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh. 4 The President, Idrus Jamia Mussij Committee of T.SOMALAGUDUR VILLAGE, Nandavaram Mandalam, Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh. .....RESPONDENT(S) Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue a Writ of Mandamus, or any other appropriate writ, order or orders, direction declaring the proceedings of the 3rd respondent herein passed in R.C.B.449/99 of Dt:10.1.2002 as illegal, improper, irregular, arbitrary, malafide, unenforceable and without Jurisdiction, and pass. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.K.PALAKSHA REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR REVENUE The Court made the following : Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue a Writ of Mandamus, or any other appropriate writ, order or orders, direction declaring the proceedings of the 3rd respondent herein passed in R.C.B.449/99 of Dt:10.1.2002 as illegal, improper, irregular, arbitary, malafide, unenforceable and without Jurisdiction, and pass. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.K.PALAKSHA REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR REVENUE The Court made the following : . PSR, J. W.P.No. 3156 of 2002 O r d e r: This writ petition is filed by the Sarpanch of T. Somalagudur (v), Nandavaram Mandal, Kurnool District contending that the muslim population of the village is about 50 in number; the old Mosque was constructed long back and apart from that there is a new mosque also. In Sy.No. 168-A there is an extent of 0.25 cents land which belongs to Gramapanchayat and that is the only land available for community purposes. At the request of the fourth respondent, the gramapanchayt, in its resolution dated:15.5.1998 allotted four cents of land in Sy.No. 168-A for the purpose of construction of a mosque; but the fourth respondent has taken away the minutes book from the previous Sarpanch for the purpose of taking a xerox copy of the resolution and forged the four cents into twenty five cents, apart from other things. On knowing about the forgery, the Sarpanch submitted a representation to the second respondent-Revenue Divisional Officer informing about the tampering of the records of the resolution requesting to allot only four cents of land to the fourth respondent and the remaining government land to the Hospital and High School etc. But, as the third respondent, Mandal Revenue Officer, issued proceedings in R.C.B.No.449/99 dated:10.1.2002 to give advance possession of twenty four cents of land, the present petitioner Sarpanch wanted that order to be quashed. 2. A counter has been filed on behalf of the respondents, wherein it is stated that there is no forgery of the document by the fourth respondent; that on an application for alienation of 0.25 cents of land, proposal was sent to the higher authorities and in the meanwhile, due to urgency, an order was passed in Rc.B.449/1999 dated: 10-1-2002 for giving advance possession of the land to the Mosque authorities. The said land belongs to government and it is classified as village site Poramboke. The population of the village is 4183; out of that muslim population is 250 and as such there is necessity of construction of a mosque. There is no illegality in the action of the government. 3. There is no material to show as to exactly what was the land sought to be allotted by the government, whether it was four cents or twenty four cents. Still, when the land held by the Gramapanchayat is only twenty five cents, there is no justification in allotting the entire land of twenty five cents i.e., 1/4th acre for construction of mosque, where the muslim population according to the counter, itself,is only 250 and it is only 50 according to the Sarpanch. Even assuming that the muslim population of the village is 250, four cents land might be sufficient for construction of mosque, when the other land is sought to be utilized for hospital and high school etc. 4. Considering all these circumstances, it is directed that the fourth respondent can make use of only four cents of land for construction of mosque out of twenty cents of land and the remaining land shall be left for other community purposes. 5. With the directions as above the writ petition is disposed of. No costs. P. SWAROOP REDDY, J. July 24,2009. *BVS