The court ruled that failure to comply with the terms of a MoU negates any enforceable rights, leading to the dismissal of the writ petition.

ORDER:

VENKATESWARLU NIMMAGADDA, J.

The instas filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by the Petitioners for the following reliefs:

“..to issue a writ order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the letter of the Zonal Manager, APIIC, Srikakulam, No. Z0/SKLM/VZMDT/NCMF/ 2020/407, dated 29.12.2020 refusing petitioners request dated 15.09.2020 to receive the land cost of Rs 7,34,31,525/- in respect of Acres 70.18 cents in Sy No.22 to 25 and 79 to 84 in Basavapalem Village, Bhogapuram Mandal, Vizianagaram District and deciding to refund the initial payment made by the Company as arbitrary, illegal, contrary to the principles of natural justices and unconstitutional and consequently direct the Respondents to allot the land of Acres 70.18 cents in Sy No.22 to 25 and 79 to 84 in Basavapuram Village, Bhogapuram Mandal, Vizianagaram District to the petitioners and issue Final Approval for setting up Mega Food Project and pass..”

2. The brief facts of the case are as follows:

The case of the Writ Petitioners is that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) dated 25.02.2018 was executed between the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Petitioners for the establishment of a Mega Food Park in Basavapalem Village, Bhogapuram Mandal, Vizianagaram District. Pursuant to the aforesaid MoU, a land measuring Ac. 70.18 cents, which includes Ac.50.21 cents of assigned land and Ac.19.97 cents of Government Land covered in Sy.Nos.22 to 25 and 79 to 84 in Basavapalem Village, Bhogapuram Mandal, Vizianagaram District, was earmarked by the Government to alienate said land to APIIC and for onward allotment to the 1^st Petitioner.

The 1^st Petitioner is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013, on 10.05.2018. The 1^st Petitioner was incorporated by the 2^nd Petitioner, primarily, for establishment of Mega Food Park with infrastructure facilities for production, processing and preservation of meat, fish, fruit, vegetables oils, fats etc.,

The Government of India, as part of its economic policy desired to set up its first coastal economic corridor called East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC), covering 2500 KM of India’s coastline running across the entire East Coast of India from Kolkata to Kanyakumari to promote trade and business. The first phase of ECEC is Visakhapatnam – Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) which had been approved by the Asian Development Bank Board in October, 2016. The project to be set up by the Petitioners was to become part of this network.

3. Accordingly, the Collector, Vizianagaram District vide his letter dated 24.08.2018 and 30.08.2018 intimated to Zonal Manager, APIIC, Srikakulam Industrial Estate, that the market value is fixed @ Rs.12.5 lakhs per acre for the assigned lands in Basavapalem Village, Bhogapuram Mandal. The Zonal Manager, APIIC, Industrial Estate, Srikakulam vide his correspondence dated 31.08.2018 intimated to the 1^st Petitioner that the revised demand of land cost for assigned land admeasuring Ac.46.43 cents @ Rs.12,50,000/- per acre is coming to Rs.5,80,37,500/- and the government land admeasuring Ac. 18.00 cents @ Rs.5,00,000/- is coming to Rs.90,00,000/- respectively totaling an amount of Rs.6,70,37,500/- and thereby directed the 1^st Petitioner to deposit the processing fee of Rs.16,10,750/- arrived @ 25,000/- per acre and EMD @ Rs.20,000/- per acre, and GST @ 18% on process fee calculated to Rs.2,89,935/- totally an amount of Rs.31,89,285/- in APIIC Bank Account. In compliance of the above, the 1^st Petitioner by way of DD No.997182, dated 07.09.2018 drawn on SBI deposited Rs.31,89,285/- to the account of APIIC as processing fee and EMD, including GST.

4. The Collector, Vizianagaram on the request received from the Zonal Officer and on verifying the correspondence submitted by RDO, Vizianagaram and the Tahsildar, Bhogapuram Village vide his correspondence dated 03.02.2019 communicated to the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration, Vijay