THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY Writ Petition No.19501 of 2012 Between:
Dated 24th November, 2014 Putta Jaya Lakshmi and another And …Petitioners The Conservator of Forests, Government of A.P., Rajahmundry, E.G.District and others …Respondents Counsel for the petitioners: Sri P.Sridhar Reddy Counsel for respondent Nos.1 to 4: AGP for Forests (AP) Counsel for respondent Nos.5 to 21: Sri R.Raghunandhan for Sri T.Vinod Kumar The Court made the following:
ORDER:
This writ petition is filed for a mandamus to declare the action of the respondents in seeking to interfere with the petitioners’ possession of Acs.21.00 in Survey No.358 and Acs.22.00 in Survey No.359 of Madicherla Village, Bapulapadu Mandal, Krishna District as illegal and arbitrary.
WPMP No.29687 of 2014 is filed by one Bukya Srinivasa Rao and 16 others seeking their impleadment as respondent Nos.5 to 21 in the writ petition. By a separate order passed today, the said WPMP is ordered.
The petitioners pleaded that one Mikkilineni Sitaramaiah has purchased Acs.700.00 of land in old Survey No.1/151 of Madicherla Village from the estate holder of Vuyuur Estate, in respect of which he was granted ryotwari patta and that the said Sitaramaiah has sold the said land to one Radhakrishna Rao, who in turn sold the same to his nephew, one Edupuganti Bushan Rao. The petitioners claimed to have purchased Acs.43.00 of land in Survey Nos.358 and 359 from the said Edupuganti Bushan Rao. The petitioners further pleaded that the Government conducted survey and allotted new survey numbers to the said land of Acs.700.00, as per which the land purchased by petitioner No.1 was assigned Survey No.359 and for that by petitioner No.2, Survey No.358.
The petitioners also pleaded that the sale deeds obtained by them were regularised by the Mandal Revenue Officer under Section 5-A of the A.P.Rights in Lands and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 1971 by collecting stamp duty and registration charges. That when third parties tried to interfere with their possession of the property, the petitioners have filed O.S.No.70 of 1994 on the file of the learned Senior Civil Judge, Nuzived for permanent injunction and the said suit was decreed on 05.02.2003.
The present writ petition is filed with the grievance that two days prior to filing of the writ petition, respondent No.4 has come to the land and orally directed the petitioners not to cultivate the same on the instructions of respondent Nos.1 and 2.
On behalf of respondent Nos.1 to 4, respondent No.2 filed a counter affidavit, wherein he has inter alia stated that the land claimed by the petitioners is notified as forest land in R.S.No.1 of Madicherla Village, Bapulapadu Mandal and that the petitioners have been creating false RS numbers in collusion with the revenue officials.
The impleaded respondent Nos.5 to 21 have pleaded that as the land is vested with the forest department, they were granted pattas under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (for short ‘the Act’).
At the hearing, Sri P.Sridhar Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners, submitted that as some of the impleaded respondents were interfering with the possession of the petitioners, they have filed O.S.Nos.204 and 205 of 2014 on the file of the learned Junior Civil Judge, Nuzived for permanent injunction. The learned counsel further submitted that except notice under Section 4 of the A.P.Forest Act, 1967 no further steps culminating into issuance of final notification have been taken by the forest department, and therefore mere draft notification would not vest the land in the forest department and hence no rights came to be vested in the impleaded respondents under the purported pattas granted under the Act.
The learned Assistant Government Pleader for Forests (AP) stated that the he has no information as to whether a final notification is issued or not.
Sri R.Raghunandhan, learned Senior Counsel appearing for respondent Nos.5 to 21, submitted that while his clients are interested only in Survey No.1, in the guise of enjoying the lands in Survey Nos.358 and 359, the petitioners have been seeking to encroach upon the land in respect which pattas have been granted to his clients.
Inasmuch as the petitioners have already filed civil suits against some of the impleaded respondents (respondent Nos.5 to 21), albeit for injunction simplicitor, I am of the opinion that it would be appropriate for the petitioners to pursue the civil suits, if necessary, by seeking suitable amendments to the prayer and by impleading the State also as a party for comprehensive adjudication of the respective rights of the parties. To enable the petitioners to do so, the interim order granted by this Court shall continue for a period of three months. In the meantime, the petitioners shall be free to file appropriate applications for amendment, impleadment and also for interim reliefs.
Subject to the above directions and liberty given to the petitioners as above, the writ petition is disposed of.
As a sequel to disposal of the writ petition, W.P.M.P.Nos.24997/12 & 23455/14 and W.V.M.P.No.2128 of 2013 shall stand disposed of as infructuous.
C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J 24th November, 2014
VGB