Police authorities cannot interfere in purely civil disputes or dispossess parties from property without following the due process of law or obtaining an order from a competent court.

The Court made the following:

ORDER

1. The Writ Petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following relief:-

“…to issue a writ or order or direction more particularly one in the nature of WRIT OF MANDAMUS declaring the action of the 4th Respondent and their staff in illegally interfering in a purely civil dispute between the Petitioner Society and the 5th Respondent forcibly trespassing into the subject premises locking the building dispossessing the Petitioner Society from the property bearing Door No.10-36 S Annavaram Village Tuni Mandal Kakinada District and unlawfully handing over possession/continuing to aid the illegal possession of the 5th Respondent without any authority of law and without any order of a competent Court as illegal arbitrary unconstitutional violative of Articles 14 21 and 300A of the Constitution of India and consequently direct the Respondents more particularly Respondents No 3 and 4 to restore possession of the subject premises to the Petitioner Society by removing the illegal interference of the 5th Respondent and pass….”

2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Assistant Government Pleader.

3. Mr. A. Venkata Durga Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner, submits that respondent No.4 is interfering in the civil disputes pending between the petitioner society and respondent No.5 by forcibly trespassing into the subject premises, locking the building, dispossessing the petitioner society from the property bearing D.No.10-36, situated at S. Annavaram Village, Tuni Mandal, Kakinada District, and unlawfully handing over possession to respondent No.5, thereby continuing to aid the illegal possession of respondent No.5 without any authority of law and without any order passed by a competent Court.

4. Sri P. Ajay Babu, learned Assistant Government Pleader, submits that the police have never interfered in the civil disputes pending between the petitioner and the unofficial respondents.

5. Having regard to the entire facts and circumstances of the case, and recording the submissions made by the learned Assistant Government Pleader, this Writ Petition is disposed of directing the respondent police not to interfere henceforth in the civil disputes pending between the petitioner and the unofficial respondents, without following due process of law.

6. In the result, the Writ Petition is disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.

As a sequel, Miscellaneous petitions, if any pending, shall stand closed.