ORDER :

The 1st petitioner society is a Society registered under the Telangana Societies Registration Act, 2001 and consists of 30 persons who own plots in Sy. Nos.143, 146 and 150 of Ameenpur village and Mandal (earlier Patancheru Mandal) through registered sale deeds. They had purchased plots in a layout initially approved by the then Grampanchayat and subsequently the said layout/plots therein were regularized by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (8th respondent) under the A.P. Regulation of Unapproved and Illegal Layout Rules, 2007 on collection of requisite charges . According to the petitioners, in the vicinity of their plots, the entire area has only residential activity and no agricultural activity.

2. The 2nd petitioner is a member of the 1st petitioner society and is also owner of a plot in the above layout.

3. The 1st respondent is the Principal Secretary of the Irrigation and CAD department and respondents 2-4 are officers of the said department. The 5th respondent is the District Collector of Sanga Reddy District and respondents 6 and 7 are Officers of the said department. The 8th respondent is the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.

The contentions of the petitioners:

4. Petitioners contend that as per the layout and the approved maps of the 8th respondent, there is a road in Sy. No.149 of Ameenpur village which provides passage to the plots of the members of the society.

5. There is a tank called Ameenpur Tank (Pedda cheruvu) notified in Sy. No.231 of the Ameenpur village and Mandal as per records of Revenue and Irrigation Departments. Petitioners contend that the total tank water spread at Full Tank Level (FTL) is only Ac.93.15 gts; and that there are no agricultural operations carried out near or under the Ameenpur Tank.

6. Petitioners contend that without any basis, the Irrigation and Revenue Department officials started claiming that the plots belonging to members of the 1st petitioner society are in the Full Tank Level (for short ‘FTL’) of the Ameenpur Tank; that one S.S. Ramakrishna, representing R.K. Builders and Developers who developed the said layout, had made an application on 08.12.2009 to the Tahsildar, Patancheru Mandal for issuance of a certificate of non-coverage of FTL and water body levels in Sy. No.143 and 146 of Ameenpur village stating that he purchased land through registered sale deeds No.12051, 12052 and 12053 of 2006; that a letter No.B/10997/2009 dt.22.12.2009 was addressed by the Tahsildar, Patancheru Mandal to the Deputy Executive Engineer, Irrigation Department, Sangareddy to conduct a survey of Pedda Cheruvu in Ameenpur village and fix up the FTL boundaries; joint inspection was done by the Assistant Executive Engineer, Irrigation & CAD Department, IB Section for fixation of FTL of Ameenpur Tank in respect of Sy. No.143 and 146 of the Ameenpur village; the FTL was fixed and a FTL Phodi location sketch was prepared as per letter No.B/10997/09 dt.09-03-2010 according to which only an extent of Ac.1.18 gts was effected by the FTL area in Sy. No.143 and 146 of Ameenpur village. The copy of the said sketch was also furnished to the applicant.

7. Petitioners alleged that their lands are far away from the water body as per the said FTL location sketch, but officials working under the respondents damaged the existing road in Sy. No.149 without any notice preventing the petitioners from having access to the plots owned by its members. They contended that inspite of several representations given by members of the petitioner society such as representation dt.01.10.2018 and 04.10.2018, the road is not being restored by the respondents.

8. It is their further contention that a drain system available in the Ameenpur Tank stood damaged by some real estate dealers down stream, but the Irrigation Department officials did not do anything to make the drain system of the tank functional because of which there is overflow from the Ameenpur Tank also.

9. Therefore they filed the Writ Petit