Andhra Pradesh High Court
Judges : A.GOPAL REDDY
B.Shiramani - Appellant
Versus
Executive Officer, Grampanchayat Medchal - Respondent
Decided On : 01-27-04
Land Acquisition Act – A. P. Panchayat Raj Act – Sections 96, 98, 97, 100, 101 – Removal of encroachment – Petitioners claim to be owners of properties abutting on either side of the Station road, which leads to National Highway No. 5 – They assail the orders issued by the Executive Officer of the Medchal Grampanchayat ordering removal of encroachment forthwith, failing to do so, necessary action will be initiated for removal of such encroachment to see that road is maintained with a width of 60 feet as was originally earmarked – Held, Respondents have not produced any endorsement of the person who intended to serve on the petitioners or their inmates personally and on their failure to receive, he affixed the same on the doors of the houses of the petitioners under Panchanama drafted for such service of notices – Since the procedure for service of notice on the petitioners has not been adhered to, passing of final orders stating that petitioners failed to appear on the date of enquiry is only a make believe story – When the action proposed will have the effect of depriving their right to property, not following the procedure contemplated will cause immense prejudice to the petitioners – In view of the same, the impugned order passed by the first respondent is hereby set-aside – However, and the respondents are at liberty to issue necessary notice specifying the encroachment made by the petitioners including the area which has to be removed as contemplated under Rule 2 of the rules issued in G. O. Ms. and only on petition ers failure to do so, Gram Panchayat shall follow necessary procedure for removing the encroachments, if any – Writ Petitions Allowed
( 1 ) SINCE common question of law and; issue that arises for consideration in all the writ petitions, it is expedient to dispose of all of them by this common order.
( 2 ) THE petitioners claim to be the owners of properties abutting on either side of the Station road, Medchal, Ranga Reddy District which leads to National Highway No. 5. They assail the orders issued by the Executive Officer of the Medchal Grampanchayat dt. 8-11-2003 ordering removal of encroachment forthwith, failing to do so, necessary action will be initiated for removal of such encroachment to see that road is maintained with a width of 60 feet as was originally earmarked.
( 3 ) BRIEF facts, which are necessary for the disposal of these writ petitions, are as follows : when there was a proposal for removing encroachment, all the petitioners earlier approached this Court by filing WP Nos. 18078/2003 and batch, which were disposed of by this Court by its order dt. 28-8-2003 directing the respondents not to dispossess the petitioners from their properties without having recourse to the procedure prescribed under the Land Acquisition Act or without the consent of the petitioners. In case, the respondents treat the petitioners as encroachers, they shall be entitle to proceed against them, duly following the procedure prescribed under A. P. Panchayat Raj Act or A. P. Land Encroachment Act. On disposal of the said writ petitions, notices dt. 24-10-2003 under Section 98 (1) and (2) of A. P. Panchayat Act, 1994 (for short "the Act") were served on the petitioners informing that due to the said encroachment much inconvenience has been caused to the general public, thereby petitioners violated Sections 96,97, 100 and 101 of the Act. The petitioners were further called upon to show cause why. encroachment should not be removed as earmarked by R. and B. Department assuring them reasonably compensated towards damages suffered by them for removal of the encroachment by substituting an house site patta certiflcate equal to the basic register value. In the said notice, it was further informed to the petitioners that nearly about 135 premises have been removed duly compensating the occupiers of the premises through proce edings of the Mandal Revenue Officer in file No. B/3221/2003 i. e. , by issuing house site certificates in S. No. 805 situate at Medchal. Questioning the said notice dt. 24-10-2003, the petitioners filed WP No. 22979/2003 and batch, which were disposed of by this Court at the stage of admission on 31-10-2003 observing as follows :". . . . . . MERELY because this Court observed in the earlier batch of writ petitions that in case the respondents treat the petitioners as encroachers, they shall be entitled to proceed against them duly following the procedure prescribed under the A. P. Panchayat Raj Act or A. P. Land Encroachment Act does not authorize the respondents to term the petitioners as encroachers in view of the averments made in the caveat petition. As the petitioners have already filed their explanations to the show cause notice dt. 24-10-2003, the respondents are under obligation to provide an opportunity of being heard to the petitioners to establish their claim over the property now sought to be demolished and thereafter final orders are to be passed. During the course of enquiry, it is revealed that there is no such encroachment of the public road as alleged in the notice dt. 24-10-2003 and if the petitioners are in lawful possession, it is needless to add that the respondents are under obligation to follow the procedure under the Land Acquisition Act for acquisition of the property and only after following such procedure they can take possession of the property for widening the road. . . . "consequent upon the disposal of the said writ petitions, the impugned notices dt. 8-11-2003 were issued alleging that notice to the petitioners in terms of Section 98 (1) and (2) of the Act dt. 6-11-2003 has been duly served on the encroache
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