THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION. No.2745 of 2007 Date: 28.01.2008 Between: Gandarapu Prabhakar Rao & others. … Petitioners AND The District Collector, Krishna District at Machilipatnam, & another. … Respondents Counsel for the petitioners : Sri C. Raghu Counsel for the respondents: Assistant Government Pleader for Land Acquisition THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION. No.2745 of 2007 ORDER:- This writ petition is filed for a writ of mandamus to set aside notification dated 05.10.2006 and declaration dated 22.01.2007 issued under Sections 4(1) and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, ‘the Act’). At the hearing, learned counsel for the petitioners raised two contentions, namely, i) that without conversion of the agricultural lands for non-agricultural purposes under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Land (Conversion for non-Agricultural Purposes) Act, 2006, the proposed acquisition of the petitioners’ lands is illegal, and (ii) that dispensing with enquiry under Section 5A of the Act is illegal. As regards the first contention, this Court in judgment dated 28.12.2007 passed in Writ Petition No.18881 of 2006 and batch rejected a similar contention. Therefore, the first contention fails and is accordingly rejected. With regard to the second contention, I see merit in the same. As could be seen from the impugned notification, the purpose of acquisition is to provide house sites to the poor people. In my considered view, acquisition for the said purpose does not warrant dispensing with of enquiry under Section 5A of the Act, which provides for a valuable opportunity to the owners of the lands who seek to object to the proposed acquisition as held in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited v. Darius Shapur Chenai and others[1]. Learned Assistant Government Pleader for Land Acquisition fairly stated that the respondents are directed to hold enquiry under Section 5A of the Act. In view of the above, declaration dated 22.01.2007 issued under Section 6 of the Act is set aside and the respondents are directed to hold enquiry under Section 5A of the Act by giving an opportunity of personal hearing to the petitioners before proceeding further with the proposed acquisition. The writ petition is disposed of accordingly. As a sequel to disposal of the writ petition, WPMP.No.3519 of 2007 filed by the petitioners for interim relief is disposed of as infructuous. C.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Date: 28.01.2008 ES [1] (2005) 7 SCC 627