ORDER:

The present Writ Petition came to be filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following relief:-

“…to issue a Writ of Mandamus, or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing the respondents 1 to 5 to initiate proceedings under the provisions of A.P.(AA) Inams (Abolition & Conversion Into Ryotwari) Act, 1956 & Rules 1957 for determining the rights of the inamdar and the deity i.e. the 6th respondent and consequently declare the action of the 5th respondent in issuing Pattadhar Passbooks & Title deeds to the third parties / occupants as illegal, contrary and in violation of the provisions of the lnams Act and pass such other order or orders ….”.

2. Brief facts of the case are that, originally Inam of more than 4000 acres was gifted by Sri Pusapati Vijaya Rama Gajapathi Raju, Maharaja of Vijayanagaram Kingdom to inamdars and the land in question was gifted to late Balaramcharyulu garu by the then King of Vijayanagaram Kingdom Sri Pusapati Vijaya Rama Gajapathi Raju in the year 1790. The title was passed from original Inamdar to several persons in parts and later they also devolved between the legal heirs. The original Inamdar Sri Balaramacharyulu left with 720 acres in TD.No.5081 and at present, the petitioner who is the legal heir of Sri Balaramacharyulu is left with a share of 320 Acres of Inam land. It is pertinent to mention here that, Sri Srinivasacharyulu the eldest son of the original inamdar Sri Balaramacharyulu constructed a temple and has gifted 2/3rd of his share in the inam land to the temple in the year 1862 and the same was registered in the year 1864 which is evident from the then Commissioner’s records. The remaining land of Sri Srinivasacharyulu has been inherited by the petitioner herein. Now, the temple has got land to an extent of 400 acres. The 6th respondent in total has 400 acres of land gifted by the original inamdar and his family members and the deity is Sri Rajagopala Swamy varu in Kailasapatnam village in Kotavurutla Mandal. The landed properties are registered in Endowments records as well as Inam registers also. The inam lands forms the entire village known as Kailasapatnam and after the inam was granted, it is named as Kailasapatnam Agraharam. Therefore, the entire village is classified as “Inam Village” in the Inam registers. When survey was conducted by the Survey & Settlement Officer in the year 1959, the land found was to an extent of 4000 acres. Therefore, since it is seen that the entire village is covered as an Inam Village and an enquiry has to be conducted under the Inam Enquiries Act. The Inam Village, Kailasapatnam was published as Inam Village in the Visakhapatnam District Gazette 1959 and subsequently amended in the year 1962 and as such the name was corrected from Kilasapuram to Kailasapatnam. In pursuant to the same, an application was made to the Assistant Settlement Officer but to the best known reasons no enquiry was conducted under Inams Act.

3. It is further case of the petitioner is that, the petitioner made a petition to the Tahsildar’s Office in the year 1997 claiming the properties. Again in the years 2001, 2007, 2012 & 2013 to various respondents including the District Collector. Pursuant to his continuous efforts, a District Gazette was published on 13.08.2014 publishing a list of prohibited lands under Section 22A (1) (a) of the Registration Act, intimating the Registrar not to register any of the lands of the Kailasapatnam inam village. But, there is no response from the respondents on his petition. Hence, the present writ petition is filed.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that there is a delay in completion of enquiry under the Inams Act and thereby facilitating illegal occupation of the lands belonging to the inamdars, and more so, the temple lands. As per Section 3 of the Inams Act, “the Tahsildar may suo moto shall take action for completing the enquiry, to determine shares of the inamdars, the temple and