ORDER :

1. Since all these writ petitions are identical and the issues involved in these cases are similar, this Court deems it appropriate to dispose of them by way of this common order.

2. Heard learned counsels for the petitioners, learned Government Pleader for Panchayat Raj, and learned standing counsel for Grampanchayats.

3. For the sake of convenience and to avoid ambiguity in the discussion, the facts in W.P.No.11822 of 2022 are taken into consideration as under:

The present writ petition is filed seeking a Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in trying to make construction of office buildings for Village Secretariat, Wellness Centre and Rytu Bharosa Kendram in the land in Survey No.33 of Vedullavalasa H/O. Kovvur Village, Rolugunta Mandal, Visakhapatnam District, as illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the law laid down by the Hon’ble Apex Court as well as this Court for conversion of water tanks and water bodies into any constructions.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioners contended that the petitioners are agriculturists/ryots of Vedullavalasa Village and doing agricultural operations in respect of their lands having an irrigation source to their lands through Pothulavari Cheruvu/tank. The said Pothulavari Cheruvu is a big natural tank and catering the needs of village as irrigation source to so much agricultural lands/notified ayacut lands of the ryots apart from other professional needs of the villagers i.e., for washing of clothes by rajakas and drinking water needs of the livestock of the villagers. The tank has one feeder channel, which runs from adjacent hill areas of the village through the land in Survey No.33 of Vedullavalasa Village. It is a natural course/channel/feeder channel to Pothulavari Cheruvu/Tank. He further contended that he filed revenue records consisting of 1B Register dated 05.04.2022 and a copy of adangal dated 09.03.2022 wherein the land in Survey No.33 is shown as an extent of Ac.1.00 cents and notified as Government land and classified the nature of land as field channel. As per the revenue records, Survey No.33, in which office buildings are proposed to be constructed, is classified/earmarked as water channel (gorji). As such, it cannot be converted to any other purpose. He further contended that there are no conversion proceedings of subject land into non-agricultural purposes under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Land (Conversion for Non-Agricultural Purposes) Act, 2006 (for short, ‘the Act’), which is mandatory under the provisions of said Act before any constructions. Hence, the proceedings issued by the District Collector dated 20.05.2020 for construction of the office buildings at subject land in Survey No.33, which are come under the usage of semi public usage, as illegal and liable to be set aside and the proposed construction cannot be allowed in the subject land, which violates provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Water, Land and Trees Act, 2002 (for short, ‘the Walta Act’) as well as law laid down by the Hon’ble Apex Court and this Court. He also contended that this Court after prima facie satisfaction, granted interim direction, and because of the same, no construction is being carried out till today.

5. Learned Standing Counsel filed a vacate stay petition along with a counter seeking to vacate the interim order dated 26.04.2022 and he also filed documents consisting of resolution of Gram Panchayat and a letter addressed by the Assistant Executive Engineer to the 4th respondent herein and photographs of the proposed construction in the subject land. He contended that it is true that the land as per the revenue records, as claimed by the petitioners, which is in Survey No.33 is classified as gorji, which means that field channel/Kaluva, which runs from the hill track to Pothulavari tank, which is a natural course and feeder channel. Moreover, the said tank is catering the needs of irrigation sources to the agricultural lands apart from other prof