IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE FOURTH DAY OF AUGUST TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 938 of 2001 Between: P.Gopal Reddy S/o. P.Changa Reddy R/o. D.No.12-3-36, Tilak Road, Tirupati, Chittoor District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Land Acquisition Officer, Cum Special Thasidar, TUDA, Tirupati, Chittoor District. 2 The District Collector, Chittoor District. .....RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.M.VENKATA RAMANA REDDY Counsel for Respondent No.2: AGP FOR LAND ACQUISITION Counsel for Respondent No.1: MR. P.GANGARAMI REDDY The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition is ﬁled for a writ of mandamus to declare the inaction of the respondents in referring the claim of the petitioner for enhancement of compensation under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short ‘the Act’) as illegal and arbitrary. The petitioner sought for a consequential direction to the respondents not to demolish house bearing D.No.12-3-36, Tilak Road, Tirupati, till his claim is referred. The facts of the case are not in dispute. The petitioner’s property was acquired for widening of Tilak road in Tirupati town and award was passed on 10.05.2000. According to the respondents, the petitioner was served with notice of award under Section 12(2) of the Act on 15.05.2000. Admittedly, the petitioner submitted his application for reference of dispute under Section 18 of the Act on 28.06.2000. However, since the respondents have not referred the dispute to the civil Court, the petitioner filed the present writ petition. It is inter alia stated in the counter-aﬃdavit that the Commissioner of Land Revenue in his proceedings, dated 16.04.1991 issued directions that the Joint Collector or Special Collector shall personally verify each of the cases and only upon speciﬁc clearance by the said oﬃcers, a decision on the request for reference under Section 18 of the Act shall be taken. It is further stated that the District Collector, Chittoor issued directions on 11.02.1993 duly communicating the proforma to obtain prior sanction from him by submitting details in the check memo and that accordingly, a detailed report was submitted to the District Collector, Chittoor and orders are awaited and that action for making reference under Section 18 of the Act would be taken on receipt of orders from the District Collector, Chittoor. Under proviso to Section 18(2) of the Act, if award is passed in the presence of land owner, he is entitled to seek reference under Section 18 of the Act within six weeks and in other cases, he is entitled to make such an application for reference within two months from the date of receipt of award notice under Section 12(2) of the Act. In the face of the admitted fact that the petitioner, who was not present at the time of passing of award, received the award notice on 15.05.2000 and he having ﬁled his application for reference on 28.06.2000, his application is well within the prescribed time. Therefore, the writ petition is allowed to the extent of directing the respondents to take immediate steps for reference of the dispute to the competent civil Court under Section 18 of the Act. C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J 4th AUGUST, 2008. kvni