IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE SIXTH DAY OF MARCH TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 7913 of 2009 Between: M/s. VR Rural Equipments & Consumables Pvt. Ltd. Rep by its Managing Director, Sri Venigella Ramesh Babu, S/o. Ranga Rao, D.No. 3, NRSA Colony, Hyder Nagar, KPHB, Kukatpally, Hyderabad. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Superintendent of Police, Eluru, West Godavari District. 2 The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Eluru, West Godavari District. 3 The Station House Officer, Eluru, West Godavari District. .....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 issue an order, direction, or writ more in the nature of Writ of Mandamus against the Respondents and declare the action of the Respondents in sealing and seizing the property and the office of the petitioner Company at Eluru and in detaining the employees of the company in police station is arbitrary, illegal, and arbitrary to the fundamental principles of natural justice and to direct the respondents to not to interfere in the lawful and administrative affairs of our company in the interest of equity and justice Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.BANDI.VARAPRASADA RAO Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR HOME The Court made the following : O R D E R:- The assertion of the petitioner-company is that it is engaged in the business of trading, sales and marketing of all kinds of consumer goods, articles and services, and its main grievance is that on 08.04.2009, the 3rd respondent-Station House Officer, Eluru, without any reason whatsoever, took all the employees of the petitioner into his custody, detained them for long hours, locked the office by sealing the premises and seized its property and also demanded the staff to disclose the business activities of the petitioner-company, thus, interfered with the affairs and administration of the petitioner-company. This Court, on 22.04.2009, taking into consideration the serious allegations made by the petitioner against the respondents about the high-handed action of the police in locking and seizing the property, directed the 3rd respondent to file a detailed counter, and if he fails to file counter, to appear before this Court in person. Pursuant to the above said orders, the 3rd respondent has filed counter affidavit inter alia denying all the averments made in the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition and stated that as of now, no complaint is received against the petitioner about its activities and no case is registered against the petitioner-company and he never interfered with the business activities of the petitioner nor detained illegally any of the employees of the petitioner-company. The petitioner-company filed a reply affidavit denying the averments made in the counter affidavit in toto. Prima facie, it appears that the allegations made in the writ affidavit are so serious in nature that the 3rd respondent is alleged to have interfered with the administrative affairs of the petitioner-company. In such circumstances, taking into consideration the averments made in the writ affidavit, this Court feels that the matter needs to be enquired into by the 1st respondent-Superintendent of Police. In the circumstances, the 1st respondent is directed to conduct an enquiry into the allegations made in the writ petition after issuing notice to the writ petitioner to substantiate his case. After the enquiry, if it is found that the 3rd respondent Station House Officer has committed any irregularity or interfered with the administrative affairs of the writ petitioner, the 1st respondent shall take action against the concerned officer. This entire exercise has to be completed as expeditiously as possible, preferably, within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. With the above observations, this writ petition is disposed of. No costs. ______________ N.V.RAMANA, J 3rd June, 2009 bcj