IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE TWENTY SIXTH DAY OF AUGUST TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH WRIT PETITION No.13984 of 2002 Between: 1 T.Sreenivas Rao S/o T. Kotilangam Vinjamoor Village & Mandal, Nellore Dist. 2 M.Rajaiah S/o Subba Rama Naidu Vinjamoor Village & Mandal, Nellore Dist. 3 M.Venkateswarulu S/o Kondapa Naidu Vinjamoor Village & Mandal, Nellore Dist. 4 Smt Vijayamma W/o Somulakshmi Reddy Vinjamoor Village & Mandal, Nellore Dist. 5 J.China Kotaiah S/o Veeraiah Vinjamoor Village & Mandal, Nellore Dist. 6 Suram Chenchi Reddy S/o Subba Reddy Vinjamoor Village & Mandal, Nellore Dist. ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 The State of A.P., Rep by its Prl Sec, Irragation Dept, Secretariat, Hyd. 2 The Dist Collector, A.P., Nellore Dist. 3 The Supertending Engineer, Irragation Deprt, Ramalingapuram, A.P., Nellore Dist. 4 The Executive Engineer, Irragation Deprt, Kavali Division, A.P., Nellore Dist. .....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 to issue an appropriate writ or order or direction under Art 226 of the Constitution of India particularly one in the nature of writ of mandamus directing the respondents herein to intiate procd under land Acqusisition for acquring the lands of the petitioners i.e. 1 to 6 i.e. P1 in an extent of Ac 3-60cents in Sy.No. 499, P2 in an extent of Ac1-20 cents in Sy.no.499 P3 in an extent of Ac1-20 cents in Sy.no. 499 in an extent of Ac 4-66 cents in Sy.No. 543 the P5 in in an extent of Ac 7-80 cennts in Sy no. 536 & P6 in an extent of Ac 4-43 cents in Sy.No. 540/1 to 8 of Vinjimoor Village& Mandal, Nellore dist A.P., respectively after callin for the records Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.NUTHALAPATI KRISHNA MURTHY Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR IRRIGATION & COMM AREA DEV. The Court made the following: Form-NIC-OGS/WP{VEENA} THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH WRIT PETITION No.13984 of 2002 ORDER: It is the case of the petitioners that the petitioners 1 to 3 are having lands in an extent of Ac.3.60 cents, Ac.1.80 cents and Ac.1.20 cents respectively in Sy.No.499 of Vinjamoor village and the 4th petitioner is having land of an extent of Ac.4.66 cents in Sy.No.543, 5th petitioner is having land of an extent of Ac.7.80 cents in Sy.No.536 and 6th petitioner is having land of an extent of Ac.4.43 cents in Sy.No.540/1 to 8 of Vinjamoor village. It is stated that there is an irrigation tank by name Mallapuraju Cheruvu situated at Kokavaripalem, H/o.Vinjamoor. The lands of the petitioners were not eﬀected by the water in the tank. But the respondents have decided to raise the level of the bund of the weir without initiating any acquisition proceedings, and if weir and bund is increased, their lands will be submerged. Therefore, the petitioners seek to issue a Writ of Mandamus, directing the respondents to initiate proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 for acquiring their lands. A counter has been ﬁled stating that the existing registered ayacut of the tank is Ac.124.00 and in order to improve the ayacut to bring more lands under irrigation upto Ac.447.00, the surplus weir of the tank was raised earlier, but the surplus weir has been destroyed by some miscreants, resulting the height of the surplus weir was decreased, and hence ayacut could not be developed to the expected level. It is further stated that the lands of the petitioners were never subjected to inundation since the storage capacity of the tank is not reachable to the full tank level. Thus, the tenor of the counter is that though there was decision to increase the full tank level, but due to destruction of the surplus weir, the water never reached to the full tank level and there was no inundation of the petitioners’ lands. The ownership and possession of the petitioners of the said lands have been accepted. It is further stated that in so far as the lands which are coming under submersion, the land acquisition proceedings have already been issued by issuing Sec.4(1) Notiﬁcation in Rc.No.G3.5704/2001, dated 19.03.2005 by the District Collector, Nellore. The petitioners stated that only part of the lands have been proposed to be acquired leaving other lands including the lands of the petitioners. The issue as to whether the petitioners’ lands are submerged at any point of time is a matter of enquiry to be conducted by the concerned authorities. It is the speciﬁc case of the respondents that the lands of the petitioners were never submerged and the petitioners never alleged that their lands were submerged at any point of time. In view of the above, I am of the opinion that as and when the lands of the petitioners are submerged, the petitioners are at liberty to make an application before the District Collector, Nellore, marking a copy to the Superintending Engineer, Irrigation Department, Ramalingapuram, Nellore as well as the Executive Engineer, Irrigation Department, Kavali Division, and within one week from the date of such application, respondents 2 to 4 shall make a local inspection and conduct enquiry, and if the lands of the petitioners are submerged, appropriate proceedings for acquiring their lands shall be initiated. The Writ Petition is, accordingly, disposed of. No order as to costs. _____________________ V.ESWARAIAH,J Dated: 26.08.2008 Dsr .... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1 The State of A.P., Rep by its Prl Sec, Irragation Dept, Secretariat, Hyd. 2 The Dist Collector, A.P., Nellore Dist. 3 The Supertending Engineer, Irragation Deprt, Ramalingapuram, A.P., Nellore Dist. 4 The Executive Engineer, Irragation Deprt, Kavali Division, A.P., Nellore Dist. 5 2. 2CCs to 6. 2CD copies