IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AMARAVATI (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE FIFTH DAY OF MARCH TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SMT. JUSTICE SUMATHI JAGADAM WRIT PETITION NO: 1475 OF 2025 Between: M. Vishwanadha Reddy, S/o. Late Ragunada Reddy, Aged about 66 years, R/o. 3-144, Agarampalli, Irala Mandal, Chittoor District M. Prasad Reddy, S/o. Raja Reddy, Aged 47 Yrs, R/o. 4-55, Agrampalli, Irala Mandal, Chittoor Dist. M Venugopal Reddy, S/o. Bala Krishna Reddy, Aged 65 years, R/o. 4- 51, Agrampalli, Irala Mandal, Chittoor Dist. M. Jaya Chandra Reddy, S/o. Bala Krishna Reddy, Aged 50 years, R/o. Agrampalli, Irala Mandal, Chittoor Dist. M Pattabi Reddy, S/o. Late Srinivasulu Reddy, Aged about 64 years, R/o. 3-185-1, Agrampalli, Irala Mandal, Chittoor Dist. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. ...PETITIONERS AND 1. The State of AP, Rep by its Principal Secretary, Irrigation and Command Area Development Secretariat Bldgs, Velagapudi, Amaravati. Guntur District 2. The State of Andhra Pradesh, Rep by its Principal Secretary, Revenue Department Secretariat Bldgs, Velagapudi, Amaravati, Guntur District 3. The State of Andhra Pradesh, Rep by its Principal Secretary, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department Secretariat Bldgs, Velagapudi, Amaravati, Guntur District 4. The District Collector, Chittoor, Chittoor Dist. 5. The Tahsildar, Mandal Revenue Office, Irala Mandal, Chittoor District. 6. The Superintending Engineer, Irrigation Deportment No 637W plus MP6, Thotapalyam, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh 517001. 1. Kanipakam Gramapanchayat, Kanipakam, Chitttoor Dist Rep by Its* Panchayat Secretary. ...RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed therewith, the High Court be.pleased to issued a writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus, to declare the acts on the part of the respondents in non removing the encroachments made on Agarampalli tank/cheruvu in Sy. Nos 365, 367, 368, 369, 370 to 374, 408/1 and 128 situated at Agrampalli Village, besides to Kanipakam village, Chittoor District amounts to erroneous, arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, besides being violative of several expressed by this Hon’ble Court and as well as Hon’ble APEX Court and consequently direct the respondent authorities encroachments forthwith by considering the representation made by the petitioners dated 21.11,2024 13.11.2007 in the interest of justice may expressions to remove the 9.8.2024, 20.3.2024, 21.10.2020, and lA NO: 1 OF 2025 Petition under Section 151 CPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court may be pleased to direct the respondents to remove the encroachments made the Agarampalli tank/cheruvu in Sy No. 365, 367, 368, 369, 370 to 374, 408/1 and 128 situated at Agrampalli Village, besides Kanipakam village, Chittoor District by considering the representation made by the petitioners dated 21.11.2024, 9.8.2024 on 20.3.2024, 21.10.2020 pending disposal of Writ Petition in the interest of justice and to and 13.11.2007 pass Counsel for the Petitioners: SRI T C KRISHNAN Counsel for the Respondents No.1 & 6: GP FOR IRRIGATION COMMAND AREA DEVELOPMENT AND Counsel for the Respondent Nos.2, 4 & 5 : GP FOR REVENUE ^ ♦ Mr, ■ RP FOR PANCHAYAT RAJ & RURAL Counsel for the Respondent ■ ^^^^^lOPMENT ^ S'F"„lSVA«CH.y.T Counsel for the The Court made the following; ORDER APHC010025962025 IN THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH AT AMARAVATI (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE FIFTH DAY OF MARCH TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY FIVE [3459] m PRESENT THE HONOURABLE SMT JUSTICE SUMATHI JAGADAM WRIT PETITION NO: 1475/2025 Between: M Vishwanadha Reddy and others ...PETITIONER(S) AND The State of AP and others Counsel for the Petitioner(S): 1.TCKRISHNAN Counsel for the Respondent(S): 1.GP FOR PANCHAYAT RAJ RURAL DEV 2.GP FOR REVENUE 3.GP FOR IRRI AND CAD ...RESPONDENT(S) The Court made the following order: 2 THE HONOURABLE SMT JUSTICE SUMATHl JAGADAM WRIT PETITION N0.1475 of 2025 ORDER: The present writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following relief: “...to issued a writ, order or direction more particuiarly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus, to declare the acts on the part of the respondents in non-removing the encroachments made on Agarampalli tank/cheruvu In Sy.Nos.365, 367, 368, 369, 370 to 374, 408/1 and 128 situated at Agrampalll Village, besides to Kanipakam village, Chittoor District amounts to erroneous, arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, besides being violative of several expressions expressed by this Hon’ble Court and as well as Hon'ble Apex Court and consequently direct the respondent authorities to remove the encroachments forthwith by considering the representation made by the petitioners dated 21.11.2024, 9.8.2024, 20.3.2024, 21.10.2020 and 13.11.2007 in the interest of justice and pass necessary order or orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper In the circumstances of the case.” The case of the petitioners is that the petitioners are ayacutdars 2. of the tank namely Agarampalli Ayacut Cheruvu having lands situated in survey Nos.365, 367, 368, 369, 370 to 374, 408/1 and 128 of Agarampalli Village, besides Kanipakam, Irala Mandal, Chittoor District. As per the revenue records, the total extent of Agarampalli Ayacut Cheruvu is Ac.47.84 cents. The grievance of the petitioners is that an extent of Ac. 16.00 3. cents of the tank is encroached by public and dumping the tank with 3 garbage. The petitioners have made representations on 21.11.2024, 09.08.2024, 20.03.2024, 21.10.2020 and 13.11.2007 to take action on the encroachers but the respondents have not acted upon. Hence, the petitioners approached this Hon’ble Court by way of this writ petition. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioners has relied on the decision of this Court in W.P.(PIL) No.140 of 2022 and batch passed orders 14.09.2022 by relying on the judgment of the Apex Court in Jagpal Singh and others vs. State of Punjab and others'', wherein it is held on that "22. Before parting with this case we give directions to ali the State Governments in the country that they should prepare schemes for eviction of illegal/unauthorized occupants of Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat/Poramboke/Shamlat land and these must be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat for the common use of villagers of the village. For this purpose the Chief Secretaries of all State Governments/Union Territories in India are directed to do the needful, taking the help of other senior officers of the Governments. The said scheme should provide for the speedy eviction of such Illegal occupant, after giving him a show cause notice and a brief hearing. Long duration of such illegal occupation or huge expenditure in making constructions thereon or political connections must not be treated as a justification for condoning this illegal act or for regularizing the illegal possession. Regularization should only be permitted in exceptional cases e.g. where lease has been granted under some Government notification to landless labourers or members of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, or where there Is already a school, dispensary or other public utility on the land.” (2011) 11 Supreme Court Cases 396 4 The 7‘^ respondent, on instructions, states that the revenue 5. ^2» officials have enumerated the encroachers and details are submitted to the DPO, Chittoor for taking further action for eviction as per the guidelines issued under Section 38 of the A.P.Irrigation, Utilization and Command Area Development Act, 1984 and also placed the list of encroachers before this Court. 6. in view of the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioners and the respondents, this Court feels it appropriate to dispose of the writ petition by directing the respondents to pass orders on the representations, dated 21.11.2024, 09.08.2024, 20.03.2024 21.10.2020 and 13.11.2007 by duly taking into consideration of the judgment of the Hon’ble Apex Court in Jagpal Singh’s case and also the judgment of the Division Bench of this Court in W.P.(PIL) No.140 of 2022 and batch, within a period of two months from today. 7. With the above said direction, the Writ Petition is disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs. As a sequel, miscellaneous petitions pending, if any, shall stand Sd/- M SRINIVAS ASSISTANT^EGISTRAR rSECT^OFFICER closed. //TRUE COPY// To of Andhra Pradesh, Irrigation and Secretariat Bldgs, Velagapudi, 1 The Principal Secretary, State Command Area Development Amaravati, Guntur District 2. The Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, State of Andhra Pradesh, Secretariat Bldgs, Velagapudi, Amaravati, Guntur District. 3. The Principal Secretary, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department, State of Andhra Pradesh, Secretariat Bldgs, Velagapudi, Amaravati, Guntur District. 4. The District Collector, Chittoor, Chittoor Dist. 5. The Tahsildar, Mandal Revenue Office, Irala Mandal, Chittoor District. 6. The Superintending Engineer, Irrigation Deportment No 637W plus MP6, Thotapalyam, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh 517001. 7. The Panchayat Secretary, Kanipakam Gramapanchayat, Kanipakam, Chitttoor District. 8. One CC to Sri T. C. Krishnan, Advocate [OPUC] 9. Two CCs to GP for Irrigation and Command Area Development, High Court of Andhra Pradesh. [OUT] lO.Two CCs to GP for Revenue, High Court of Andhra Pradesh. [OUT] 11. Two CCs to GP for Panchayat Raj & Rural Development, High Court of Andhra Pradesh. [OUT] 12.One CC to Sri M. Sudhir, SC for Gram Panchayat (OPUC) 13.Three C.D. Copies. Cnr HIGH COURT DATED:05/03/2025 ORDER WP.No.1475 of 2025 18 MAR 2025 ^ . Current Section PATC-V^:^:^ f 3= DISPOSING OF THE W.P. WITHOUT COSTS