Andhra Pradesh High Court - Amravati
P.S. Manjunath, vs Transmission Corporation Of Andhra ... on 13 July, 2021
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE A.V.SESHA SAI
WRIT PETITION No. 12706 OF 2021
ORDER:
Heard Sri I.Venkata Prasad, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Y.Nagi Reddy, learned Standing Counsel for the respondent-Corporation, apart from perusing the material available on record.
2. According to the petitioner, he is the owner and possessor of the land admeasuring Acs.10.26 cents in Sy.No.359-1 within the local limits of Chalivendula Grama Polam area, Hindupur Mandal, Anantapuramu District. Earlier, questioning the action of the respondents in seeking to erect high power towers and laying high tension wires through his land without making payment of compensation under the provisions of the Act 30 of 2013 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, the petitioner herein invoked the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by filing Writ Petition No.10751 of 2020. This Court, by way of an order dated 17.06.2021, disposed of the said Writ Petition and the operative portion of the said order reads as under:
"Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, submissions of the learned counsel and on perusal of the record, this Court found that the respondent authorities are authorized to lay the electrical towers and draw the electrical lines across the 2 land of the petitioner as per the provisions of Section 10 of the Indian Telegraphic Act, 1885 and Section 164 of the Electricity Act, 2003. As is held by the Hon'ble Apex Court, the petitioner is not entitled for any prior notice to submit objections for laying the electrical towers. If the petitioner is aggrieved by the action of the respondents in laying the electrical towers in his land, he has to approach the District Magistrate for shifting or change of electrical towers only after erecting them and for payment of compensation and damages also, he has to approach the District Magistrate only. The District Magistrate is under the statutory obligation to consider the said representation and pass appropriate orders directing the respondents to pay the compensation as per law. Hence, in the interest of justice, this Court felt it appropriate to dispose of the Writ Petition giving liberty to the petitioner to approach the District Magistrate, as per the provisions of Section 16 of the Indian Telegraphic Act, 1885 by way of a comprehensive representation for payment of compensation within a period of three (3) weeks from the date of receipt of copy of this order. On submission of such representation by the petitioner, the District Magistrate is directed to consider the same as per the law and pass appropriate reasoned order for payment of compensation within a period of three (3) months from the submission of the representation and communicate the same to the petitioner."
3. According to the petitioner, in pursuance of the above said order, he submitted a representation on 29.06.2021. A copy of the said representation is placed on record along with the Writ Petition as a material paper, wherein the petitioner herein stated that in collusion with the adjacent land owners, there was a change of route map while erecting the towers and laying high tension wires.
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4. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that despite the said representation, the respondent- authorities are proceeding with the erection of high power tower deviating to the route map.
5. On the other hand, it is submitted by the learned Standing Counsel for the respondent-Corporation, Sri Y.Nagi Reddy, that the present Writ Petition is not maintainable before this Court and if the petitioner is aggrieved by the orders passed in the earlier Writ Petition, he can take necessary steps as per law, but not by way of another Writ Petition. It is also the submission of the learned counsel that in the earlier Writ Petition, this Court categorically found that the respondent- authorities would be entitled to lay the electrical towers and draw the electrical lines across the land of the petitioner as per the provisions of Section 10 of the Indian Telegraphic Act, 1885 and Section 164 of the Electricity Act, 2003, and the petitioner herein is not entitled for any prior notice to submit objections for laying the electrical towers. This Court also observed that in the event of the petitioner being aggrieved by the action of the respondent-authorities in laying electrical towers in his land, he has to approach the District Magistrate for shifting or change of electrical towers only after erecting them and for payment of compensation and damages. It is also clear from the said order that the petitioner herein was given opportunity to approach the District Magistrate by way of representation for payment of compensation and this Court further directed the District Magistrate to consider the same and pass appropriate reasoned 4 order for payment of compensation within a period of three months from the submission of the representation.
6. As rightly pointed out by the learned Standing Counsel for the respondent-Corporation, the present Writ Petition is not maintainable before this Court for the same relief and if the writ petitioner herein has any grievance, he has to take steps in accordance with law. It is also not his case that the District Magistrate passed order on the representation dated 29.06.2021.
7. With the above observations, the Writ Petition stands disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs of the Writ Petition.
Miscellaneous petitions, if any pending in this Writ Petition, shall stand closed.
_____________ A.V.SESHA SAI, J 12.07.2021 siva 5 THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE A.V.SESHA SAI WRIT PETITION No. 12706 OF 2021 12.07.2021 siva