THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE R.RAGHUNANDAN RAO
WRIT PETITION No.4742 of 2022
ORDER:-
The petitioner is owner and possessor of Door No.4-200 at
Mutharasi Street, Mogaltur Village and Mandal, West Godavari
District. He has approached this Court with the complaint that
a drinking water well in Rs.No.722/1 which is said to be utilized
by various persons in locality was being destroyed by the 10th
respondent and the respondents 7 to 9 are actively encouraging
and assisting the 10th respondent in destroying the well, despite the fact that the said well falls within government land.
2. The petitioner contends that the petitioner had been making various representations to the official respondents for protecting the said well, despite which no steps are being taken to protect the well. It is the case of the petitioner that he had earlier filed Writ Petition .No.20028 of 2021 for directions for protection of said well, which had been disposed of by this Court on 13.09.2021. The petitioner also states that there an earlier further writ petition No.7748 of 2021 before this Court which was disposed of on 07.04.2021.
3. The petitioner has now approached this Court again on the ground that despite the representations of the petitioner and the various directions issued by this Court in these writ petitions, no steps are being taken for protecting the said well.
4. Sri P.Ranga Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the adangal of the land shows that 2 Sy.No.722/1 is classified as Grama Kantam land and as government poramboke land. He submits that in view of the said revenue record, it would be the bounden duty of the official respondents to ensure that the existing well is not destroyed.
5. The 10th respondent has appeared as party-in- person and has placed certain documents before this Court. He contended that he is the owner of the property as the said property consisting of an extent of Ac.0.10 cents of land had always been within the family of the petitioner and had become the absolute property of the petitioner by virtue of a family partition deed registered in the year 2018. He submits that due to financial difficulties, for the purposes of performing the marriage of sister, he sought to sell the said land. As the prospective buyers were not interested in purchasing the land with the well, he had taken steps for closing the said well after obtaining necessary approvals from the Mandal Revenue Officer.
6. The question of whether the said land should be treated as public land or private land has effectively been decided by the order of this Court dated 07.04.2021 in W.P.No.7748 of 2021. In this order, this Court had taken the view that the property is a private property and any grievance of the petitioner can be redressed only by way of a civil action before an appropriate forum and not by way of a writ petition before this Court. This judgment of this Court has become final as no appeal has been filed against this order.
7. This Court is also bound by the said order. 3
8. For the aforesaid reasons no direction can be issued by this Court in relation to a dispute over private property.
9. In the circumstances, this writ petition is dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs.
Miscellaneous petitions, pending if any, in this Writ Petition shall stand closed.
___________________________________ JUSTICE R.RAGHUNANDAN RAO Date : 07-03-2022 BSM 4 THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE R.RAGHUNANDAN RAO WRIT PETITION No.4742 of 2022 Date : 07-03-2022 BSM