IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 16874 of 2008 Between: 1 K.Prahalada Rao, S/o. Madhava Rao, R/o. Telkapally Village & Mandal, Mahabubnagar District. 2 M.Venkateswarlu, S/o. Jagannadham, R/o. Telkapally Village & Mandal, Mahabubnagar District. ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 The District Collector, Mahabubnagar District at Mahabubnagar Town, 2 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Nagar Kurnool Revenue Division, Mahabubnagar District. 3 The Tahsildar, Telkapally Mandal,Mahabubnagar District. .....RESPONDENTS 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 or direction or writ specially writ of mandamus declaring the high handed action of the respondents in interfering with the peaceful possession and enjoyment of the petitioners over their private patta lands in Sy.Nos. 473 & 474 of Telkapally village & Mandal, Mahabubnagar District a arbitrary, illegal and violative of Art.14, 21 & 300-A of Constitution of India and set aside the Proceedings Lr.No.E/47/2008 dated 19-2-2008 on the ﬁle of 2nd respondent and consequently direct the respondents to allow the petitioners to proceed with by making lay out and develop the same. Counsel for the Petitioners:MR.L.PRABHAKAR REDDY Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR REVENUE The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition is ﬁled questioning the action of the respondents in interfering with the peaceful possession and enjoyment of the petitioners over their private patta land in survey Nos.473 and 474 of Telkapally Village and Mandal, Mahabubnagar District; to set aside the proceedings, dated 19.02.2008, issued by the second respondent – Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer, Nagarkurnool and consequently direct the respondents to allow the petitioners to develop the same. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned Government Pleader for Revenue. The second petitioner is the Ex-Sarpanch of Telkapally Village. It is the case of the petitioners that, due to political rivalry, on a complaint given by the Sarpanch of the said Village, the third respondent – Tahsildar, through order, dated 16.07.2007, initiated suo motu proceedings and directed the petitioners to stop all activities in the subject land and maintain status quo, till it is surveyed and boundaries are ﬁxed. Thereafter, pursuant to the application submitted by the petitioners, the Divisional Deputy Inspector conducted the survey and submitted a report stating that the petitioners’ private land is not even adjacent or abutting the Government land in survey Nos.472 and 35. Basing upon the said report, the third respondent vide memo, dated 22.01.2008, withdrew the earlier status quo order passed by the Tahsildar. Again at the instance of the second respondent, a comprehensive survey was conducted on 04.02.2008 and the Assistant Director of Survey and Land Records, after due veriﬁcation, ﬁxed the boundaries with regard to private patta lands in survey Nos.473 and 474 of the petitioners and the Government land in survey Nos.472 and 35. The grievance of the petitioners is that, in spite of the same, on a complaint made by the Chairman, ZPP, Mahboobnagar, the second respondent again issued the impugned proceedings, dated 19.02.2008, directing the third respondent to stop all the activities relating to making layout for disposal of plots on the subject land, until further orders. While admitting the writ petition on 05.08.2008, this Court passed a detailed order suspending the proceedings, dated 19.02.2008, issued by the second respondent and directed the learned Government Pleader for Revenue to file counter-affidavit. In the counter-aﬃdavit ﬁled on behalf of the respondents, while admitting that the petitioners are the pattadars of the land in survey Nos.473 and 474 of Telkapally Village, it is contended that in view of the representations of the political party leaders and public stating that the petitioners are trying to occupy and sell the Government land in survey No.472, the petitioners were directed to stop all activities over the subject land till a detailed survey is conducted. It is stated that the land of the petitioners in survey No.473 and that of the Government in survey No.472 are quite adjacent and there are no boundary marks on the spot. Therefore, the Assistant Director, Survey and Land Records, Mahaboobnagar and Deputy Inspector of Survey have been instructed to conduct a detailed survey of lands in survey Nos.472 and 35, and 473. As the report of the Surveyor was not received till 19.02.2008, the second respondent issued the impugned proceedings, only with a view to protect the Government lands from encroachment. It is also stated that the petitioners without obtaining prior permission for making lay out and applying for conversion of land into non- agriculture purpose, proceeded to develop the plots for disposal, which is illegal and not proper. It is further stated that the Assistant Director, Survey and Land Records, submitted the report on 28.02.2008 and based on that, the boundaries to the Government land in survey Nos.472 and 35 and that of the petitioners in survey Nos.473 and 474, were fixed. The petitioners are at liberty to develop their land by obtaining prior permission from Gram Panchayat concerned by paying requisite fee and orders from the second respondent regarding conversion of land into non- agriculture purpose. Having regard to the admission made by the respondents in the counter-aﬃdavit that the land in survey Nos.473 and 474 belongs to the petitioners and boundaries were also ﬁxed, I deem it appropriate to dispose of the writ petition with the following directions: The order dated 19.02.2008, passed by the 2nd respondent, is set aside. The petitioners are at liberty to develop their land in survey Nos.473 and 474, and if they want to develop the land into plots by carving a lay out, they can do so after obtaining necessary permission from the Gram Panchayat of Telkapally village. No costs. _____________ N.V.RAMANA, J. Dated:14.10.2008 GJ