APHC010015162025 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI [3333]

(Special Original Jurisdiction)

THURSDAY ,THE NINTH DAY OF JANUARY TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SMT JUSTICE V.SUJATHA WRIT PETITION NO: 771/2025 Between:

Sri Venkateswara Rural Farmers Cold Storage ...PETITIONER AND The Allagadda Municipality and Others ...RESPONDENT(S)

Counsel for the Petitioner:

1. P NAGENDRA REDDY Counsel for the Respondent(S):

1.

2. GP MUNCIPAL ADMN AND URBAN DEV AP The Court made the following:

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 order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus to declare the action of the Respondent No.1 in locking the Petitioner’s Cold Storage on the ground of Plan approval and fire NOC are not submitted in pursuant to the Notice dated 27-12-2024 without passing any orders conferring the power under the AP Municipalities Act as arbitrary, illegal, beyond jurisdiction and violation of Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India and consequently direct the Respondent No.1 to open the Cold Storage and not interfere with the Cold Storage business activities of the Petitioner without following due process of law in the interest of justice to pass…”

2. The brief facts of the case are that the petitioner had purchased the land to an extent of Ac.4-00 cents in Sy.No.406/1 of Allagadda Village and Mandal under registered Sale Deed dated 24-02-2010 and subsequently, after duly obtaining building permission from the respondent No.1, the petitioner had constructed a Cold Storage and running the business on the name of Sri Venkateswara Rural Farmers Cold Storage and had also obtained license from the Agriculture Market Committee, Allagadda, the same is being renewed from time to time and is in force till 31.03.2029.

3. While the matter being so, the respondent No.1, basing on the complaint made by the Hon’ble Member of the Legislative Assembly, Allagadda Constituency alleging that the petitioner is running the Cold Storage without obtaining appropriate permissions from the concerned authorities, had issued a notice dated 27.12.2024 to the petitioner directing him to submit the building permission, drawing plan, property tax receipt, registered document and fire NOC. The grievance of the petitioner is that in pursuance of the notice dated 27.12.2024, the respondent No.1 without giving any breathing time to the petitioner has locked the said Cold Storage on 06.01.2025 itself.

Aggrieved by the action of the respondent No.1, the petitioner had filed the present writ petition.

4. Heard P.Nagendra Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioner, Smt. Sireesha Rani, learned Standing Counsel appearing for the respondent No.1 and learned Government Pleader for Municipal Administration and Urban Development appearing for the respondent No.2 and perused the material available on record.

5. Today when the matter came up for admission, learned Standing Counsel appearing for the respondent No.1 has furnished a copy of instructions issued by the Commissioner, Allagadda Municipality, wherein it is stated that in spite of the issuance of the notice dated 27.12.2024, the petitioner had failed to produce the requisite documents as directed by the respondent No.1 and as such the respondent No.1 had locked the petitioner’s Cold Storage on 06.01.2025.

6. On a perusal of the impugned notice dated 27.12.2024, it can be seen that the impugned notice was not issued by the respondent No.1 on his own after conducting an inspection by duly verifying whether the petitioner is running the subject Cold Storage by obtaining requisite permissions from the concerned authorities or not, but has issued the same basing on the complaint made by the Hon’ble Member of the Legislative Assembly, Allagadda Constituency. Though as per the impugned notice, the petitioner was permitted to submit the relevant documents, even without