THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY Writ Petition No.4948 of 2006 Dated 20th July, 2011 Between: Water User Association Padamativagu Check Dam …Petitioner And The Govt.of A.P., rep.by its Secretary, Irrigation & CAD, Secretariat Building, Hyderabad and others …Respondents Counsel for the petitioner: Sri D.Jaipal Reddy Counsel for respondents: AGP for Irrigation and CAD The Court made the following: ORDER: At the interlocutory stage, the writ petition is taken up for hearing and disposal with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties. This writ petition is filed for a mandamus to declare the inaction of the respondents in releasing funds to the petitioner after completion of the programme of constructing the check dam under Neeru-Meeru programme as illegal and arbitrary. At the hearing, it has come out that while releasing the grant to the petitioner for undertaking the work of construction of a check dam under the above-noted programme, the respondents have deducted a sum of Rs.5,55,011/- towards the purported standard deduction relatable to income tax. Sri D.Jaipal Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioner, placed before the Court a copy of Memo No.39346/APERP/98-1, dated 08.10.1998, issued by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, wherein it is inter alia postulated that no income tax is leviable on the works done by a Water Users Association or a Distributory Committee, as they are essentially associations of farmers who have been entrusted to take up the maintenance works of irrigation schemes for their own benefit. The learned Assistant Government Pleader for Irrigation, while not disputing this plea of the learned counsel for the petitioner, has however stated that Sri Gade Sanjeeva Reddy is only the President of Users Group Society and not the President of the petitioner- Association. In my opinion, the status of Sri Gade Sanjeeva Reddy does not have much relevance for the reason that the issue raised in the writ petition by the Water User Association of Padamativagu Check Dam is whether a sum of Rs.5,55,011/- is liable to be deducted from out of the amounts payable to it. Since there is no dispute with respect to this aspect in view of the above noted memo, dated 08.10.1998, the petitioner need not be non-suited only on the ground that it is not represented by a proper person. After all, the ultimate benefit would go to the Water User Association and not to any individual, including Gade Sanjeeva Reddy. In this view of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of with the direction to the respondents to release a sum of Rs.5,55,011/-, which was deducted towards standard income tax deduction, to the credit of the Account of the petitioner-Association, but not in favour of any individual, within a period of one month from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. As a sequel to disposal of the writ petition, W.P.M.P.Nos.6292 of 2006 and 26949 of 2007 are disposed of as infructuous. C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J 20th July, 2011 VGB