WP/27734/2005 of Jyothi Malakondaiah Vs The District Collector, Nellore,/The District Election on 27 December 2005

ORDER:

Petitioners seek a Writ of Mandamus to declare the action of the respondents in conductionelections to the Managing Committee of Padamatipalem Water Users’ Association,Sangam Mandal, Nellore District without following the due procedure under Rule 4 of theA.P. Farmers’ Management of Irrigation Systems Rules, 1997 (for short ‘the Rules’) andwithout disposing the appeal filed them before the first respondent dated 22.12.2005 as Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned counsel appearing for therespondents.

Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners are agriculturists and havingsmall extents of lands in Tarunavai Village, Sangam Mandal, Nellore District and the namesof the petitioners 1 to 8 and 11 to 15 are recorded in Adangals of revenue records and thepetitioners 9 and 10 are having D Form pattas in their favour. While so, the Commissioner,CAD & Principal Secretary to Government (Irrgn.) I & CAD Department, issued anotification dated 30.11.2005 for conducting elections to Water Users Associations underthe Andhra Pradesh Farmers’ Management of Irrigation Systems Act, 1997 (for short ‘theAct’). Pursuant to the said notification, the first respondent issued a notification on04.12.2005 for preparation of voters list of Padamatipalem Water Users’ Association for theyear 2006. Pursuant to the said notification, the petitioners submitted the applications to thethird respondent in From-F on 13.12.2005 requesting him to enter their names in the saidvoters list. The third respondent prepared the voters list and published on 20.12.2005 on thenotice board of the Gram Panchayat without including of the names of the petitioners.Therefore, the petitioners approached the first respondent by way of appeal/objections on22.12.2005 under Rule 4(4) of the Rules. It is further submitted that under Rule 9(6) of theRules, after receiving the objections, if any, the District Officer, shall consider suchobjections within two weeks and finalise such list by preparing the names to be incorporatedat the end of each list and final notice, thereafter, shall be published in Form-I in respect ofthe voters list.

In the instant case, the final publication of voters list in Form-I was published on 20.12.2005and the appeal was filed on 22.12.2005. Therefore, the question of entertaining theappeal/objections after publication of the final voters list in Form-I does not arise.

In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case, this Court does not find anyillegality on the part of the respondents in publishing the final voters list. Had the petitionersfiled their objections before the publication of final voters list it would have been a different matter. As such no relief can be granted in this writ petition.

The writ petition is accordingly dismissed with a liberty to the petitioners to file an electionpetition, raising objections for conduction elections without including their names.

December 27, 2005DSK

______________V. ESWARAIAH, J