The main legal point established in the judgment is that de-casting of sand from patta lands did not require prior clearance from the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wild Life if the lands were not within the Eco Sensitive Zone as per the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change guidelines.

ORDER :

1. This petition is filed to issue a writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the 5th respondent in issuing notices dated 18.12.2021 and 01.01.2022 directing to stop de-casting of sand from the patta lands of the petitioners, as arbitrary, illegal and violative of Article 21 of the Constitution and to set aside the same with a consequential direction to the 5th respondent not to interfere.

2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners, the learned Government Pleader for Mines and Geology representing the respondent Nos.1 to 4 and the learned Government Pleader for Forests representing respondents No.5 to 7.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners were the owners and possessors of marginal extent of patta lands in Eturunagaram village. The said lands were near Jampanna Vagu river coast. Due to flash floods in the rainy season, the said lands were casted with sand and the thickness of the sand deposited was about three meters in the area. Since the Telangana State Mining Rules, particularly, Rule-7 provided for de-casting of mines from patta lands, the petitioners made independent applications dated 08.06.2020 before the Assistant Director of Mines and Geology Department, who was the Member Convenor of the District Level Sand Committee (DLSC). A joint inspection was conducted on 12.06.2020 and proposals were discussed in the DLSC meeting held on 04.12.2020. Since all the officers, forming part of the Joint Committee, were of the considered opinion that sand had to be de-casted to make the lands fit for agricultural operations, the DLSC had issued proceedings dated 29.06.2021 according permission for de-casting of sand of 2,09,130 cubic meters from the patta lands of the petitioners through M/s. Telangana State Mineral Development Corporation Limited (TSMDC) subject to certain conditions. The petitioners entered into agreements with M/s.TSMDC as per the amended Rule-7 of the Telangana State Sand Mining Rules, 2015 (for short, ‘Rules, 2015’). Pursuant to the agreements entered, the de-casting operations commenced immediately. Subsequently, the Forest Range Officer, Eturunagaram (South) WLM issued letter dated 18.12.2021 stating that the subject area was falling under Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of Eturunagaram Wild Life Sanctuary and directed to stop the de-casting operations in the patta lands. Immediately, the TSMDC addressed a letter dated 17.01.2022 to the District Collector, Mulugu informing that the Forest Officials were interfering with the de-casting operations on the alleged ground that the subject lands were falling in ESZ and it was also informed in the said letter that de-casting of sand from patta land was purely a time bound action to make the agricultural lands fit for agriculture. According to TSMDC, the area was not notified as ESZ. No draft map was available in the public domain. The de-casting operations could not be stopped as these areas were not even notified under the Wild Life Laws. The Assistant Director of Mines and Geology also addressed a letter to the District Forest Officer, Mulugu on 24.12.2021 stating that none of the area under question had been notified so far and there was no proposal even sent by the District Forest Officer from District Level seeking to notify the subject areas falling under ESZ. The particular village of Eturunagaram was not part of the villages and not part of the Geo-coordinates included in the said proposal to include certain habitations to be part of ESZ area. The Eco Sensitive Committee proposed inclusion of 33 villages in which Eturunagaram village was not found and requested the District Forest Officer not to stop the sand mining in the mentioned area and that the Forest Department had no locus standi in declaring the Eco Sensitive Zone even without sending the draft, and hindering the operations would attract penal provisions under Section 188 IPC. Despite the above two letters addressed by the District Collector and the Assist