IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE FOURTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE L.NARASIMHA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 23995 of 2008 Between: K. Maddileti Reddy S/o. Suryanarayana Reddy R/o. Chennampally Village, Owk Mandal, Kurnool District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Assistant Director of Mines and Geology, Banaganapalle, Kurnool District. 2 The Director of Mines and Geology, Hyderabad. 3 The Tahsildar, Owk Mandal, Kurnool 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 orders more particularly in the nature of Writ of Mandamus to declare the action of the respondents in not considering the mining application submitted by the petitioner for grant of mining lease in respect of land extent Ac.15.00 cents in Sy.No.826 of Cherolopalli Village, Owk Mandal, Kurnool District as arbitrary and illegal and consequently direct the respondents to consider the mining application submitted by the petitioner for grant of mining lease in respect of land extent Ac.15.00 cents in Sy.No.826 of Cherolopalli Village, Owk Mandal, Kurnool District, in the interest of justice. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.P.NAGENDRA REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR MINES AND GEOLOGY The Court made the following : ORDER: The petitioner submitted an application to the ﬁrst respondent on 11.10.2007, with a request to grant mining lease over Acs.15.00 of land in survey No.826 of Cherolopalli Village, Owk Mandal, Kurnool District. It is stated that the ﬁrst respondent has forwarded the application to the Tahasildar, the third respondent, for grant of No Objection Certiﬁcate, and though more than one year had elapsed, no action has been taken thereon. The petitioner contends that applications ﬁled in respect of neighbouring lands were processed and leases were granted, whereas his application is kept pending. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Government Pleader for Mines and Geology. The matter is now said to be pending with the third respondent, in the context of granting No Objection Certificate. The Government had issued instructions from time to time to speed up the veriﬁcation of the matters by the revenue authorities, in the context of granting mining leases. The nature of veriﬁcation to be undertaken by the third respondent is very limited, namely, whether the land belongs to the Government and whether it is feasible to grant mining lease. Such a small thing should not take so long a time. Hence, the Writ Petition is disposed of, directing that respondents 1 and 3 shall take necessary steps on the application of the petitioner, within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. There shall be no order as to costs. ______________________ Dt.04.11.2008 L.NARASIMHA REDDY, J GJ