ORDER :

M.S.Ramachandra Rao, J.

ITC Limited, the petitioner herein, has filed this Writ Petition seeking Writ of Mandamus for refund of the amount of Rs.4.5 Crores to it from the respondents, which amount had been deposited by it with the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (APIIC) through cheque No.066843 dt.29.05.2007 drawn on Standard Chartered Bank, for allotment of land towards expansion project undertaken by it in Sarapaka Village near Bhadrachalam in the composite State of Andhra Pradesh.

2. The petitioner is engaged in the business of manufacture of paper boards and specialty papers apart from other businesses and has a manufacturing facility at Sarapaka Village near Bhadrachalam established during 1970s in the then State of Andhra Pradesh. The petitioner wanted to expand the existing facility and requested the then Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2005 to allot land for expansion in the said village.

3. Under the said proposal, the APIIC had furnished a proposal for diversion of 445 hectares of forest land in Kistasagar Reserved Forest of Paloncha Forest Division in Khammam District to the petitioner and an extent of 1576.80 Acres in Peddannavaripalli, Talupula Mandal of Ananthapur District was also identified by APIIC for compensatory afforestation.

4. The petitioner’s request was agreed to by the composite State of Andhra Pradesh and land to an extent of 1500 Acres was earmarked in said village by the APIIC which was functioning as a Nodal Agency for industrial development in the unified State of Andhra Pradesh.

5. As per the scheme proposed, the identified land would be handed over to APIIC by the Forest Department which would in turn hand it over to the petitioner after getting approval from the Ministry of Environment and Forest of the Union of India.

6. Since the land proposed to be allotted in Sarapaka village was a degraded forest land, the petitioner and the Government Agencies including APIIC identified 1500 Acres of Government land in Ananthapur District for compensatory afforestation. The petitioner was required to maintain compensatory afforestation in this land.

7. After identification of the land in Khammam District, the then Zonal Office of the APIIC at Warangal issued a letter dt.02.05.2007 directing the petitioner to deposit Rs.4.5 Crores before 31.05.2007 and the petitioner deposited the same vide letter dt.31.05.2007 along with a cheque drawn on Standard Chartered Bank bearing No.066843 dt.29.05.2007. The cheque was encashed by the APIIC.

8. The proposal to transfer land to the petitioner was ultimately rejected by the Forest Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, New Delhi in its meeting dt.21-22 December, 2012. However, notwithstanding the same, the money paid by the petitioner was not refunded to the petitioner by the then Government of Andhra Pradesh/APIIC.

9. In the meantime, the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated under A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014 (for short, ‘the Act’) with effect from 02.06.2014 into the new State of Telangana and the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh.

10. As a consequence thereof, the lands proposed for diversion for allotment to the petitioner for expansion of it’s unit in Sarapaka village fell in the new State of Telangana; and the land proposed for compensatory afforestation in Ananthapur District remained in the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh.

11. Consequent to the bifurcation of the erstwhile composite State of Andhra Pradesh, the APIIC, which was acting as a Nodal Agency for the combined State of Andhra Pradesh prior to the Act, came to be bifurcated into Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSIIC) (5th respondent) and APIIC (4th respondent).

12. Post bifurcation of the composite State of Andhra Pradesh also, the Forest Advisory Committee again discussed the proposal of petitioner in its meeting held on 31.12.2015 and rejected the proposal vide File No.8-19/2011-FC dt.31.12.2015.

13. No fres