Paluru Parameswari, v. The Venkatagiri Municipality,

THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE A.RAMALINGESWARA RAO WRIT PETITION No.34807 of 2012 ORDER:

It is the case of the petitioners that an extent of Ac.34.30 cents in Survey No.160/2 in Periyavaram and an extent of Ac.18.48 cents in Survey No.69/1 in Chevireddypalli village belongs to one Raja Velugoti Sarvagna Krishna Yachandra Bahadur. He donated Ac.8.05 cents in Survey No.165/2 of Venkatagiri village and Ac.12.32 cents in Survey No.69/1 of Chevireddypalli village to Venkatagiri Town Handlooms Weavers Co-operative Products and Sales Limited, Venkatagiri, Kasipeta. Thus, an extent of Ac.20.89 cents was donated to the said Society. All the petitioners purchased small extents of land under registered sale deeds and agreements from the Society and also from the members of the Society. The Tahsildar, Venkatagiri Mandal, also issued Possession Certificates for the respective sites occupied by the petitioners.

The petitioners obtained loans from A.P.State Housing Corporation Limited and constructed houses. They have been paying house tax also. While so, when a notice was issued on 31.10.2012 stating that the petitioners encroached the said lands and that as per the orders of the Hon'ble Lokayukta in L.D.S.No.2869/2011 and 3049/2011/B1/LOK/ 9265/2012, dated 06.08.2012, the petitioners have to be removed from the alleged encroachments within seven days, they filed the present writ petition.

2.

This Court, by order dated 07.11.2012, directed the respondent not to interfere with the constructions made by the petitioners by passing the following order:

"The impugned notice appears to have been issued in pursuance of the proceedings of Honourable Lokayukta and the petitioners claim that they had no prior notice of either the proceedings before the Lokayukta or the impugned notices issued now. Violation of the fundamental principles of natural justice thus alleged need to be enquired into on merits and, therefore, the subject houses of the petitioners shall not be interfered with or demolished, until further orders herein."

3.

No counter affidavit is filed by the respondent. 4.

A reading of the impugned notice shows that it was issued under Sections 192 and 193 of A.P. Municipalities Act, 1965, and this Court feels that an opportunity should be given to the petitioners before taking final action.

5.

Accordingly, this writ petition is disposed of giving liberty to the petitioners to submit their explanation to the notice dated 31.10.2012 treating it as a preliminary notice, within a period of two

(02) weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and the respondent is directed to consider the same and pass appropriate orders there on, in accordance with law. Till such time, no action shall be taken for demolition of the buildings or vacation of the petitioners from the lands in their occupation. There shall be no order as to costs.

Miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in this writ petition shall stand closed.

_______________________________ A. RAMALINGESWARA RAO, J 01st November, 2016 Bvv