VINAYAKA VARAPU SANTHA Vs. COMMISSIONER MADANAPALLY MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the Secretary of Sri Vinayaka Varapu Santha Vyaparasthula Sangham, Madanapalli. According to the petitioner, the sangham consists of 60 members who are all petty businessmen doing business by running vegetable shops, kirana shops, coconut shops etc., in the weekly santha (market) at Madanapalli, in an extent of 5-50 cents of land belonging to the Madanapalli Municipality, for the past several years. Every year, the Municipality conducts public auction of the right to conduct santha and the 2nd respondent was declared as the highest bidder for the present year. The members of the petitioner-sangham have been paying the fees regularly to the 2nd respondent-contractor. Petitioner claims that the weekly market covers about 600 villages and roughly ten thousand people will attend the santha. The complaint of the petitioner is that without issuing any notice and without observing principles of natural justice, in the first week of September 1999, the personel belonging to the first respondent-municipality attempted to dispossess/evict the members of the petitioner-sangham from the respective places in the market. The petitioner-sangham, therefore, filed this writ petition seeking a writ of mandamus to declare the action of the respondents in dispossessing evicting the members of the petitioner sangham from their respective places in the weekly market (santha) situate at Madanapalli as illegal and arbitrary and for a consequential direction to the respondents to forbear from depriving the members of the petitioner-sangham of their property without following due process of law.

(2.) On 29-9-1999 this Court, while admitting the writ petition, in WPMP No. 25470 of 1999, granted interim stay of eviction until further orders. The 1st respondent-Municipality filed WVMP 720 of 2000 along with its counter-affidavit seeking to vacate the abovesaid interim order. In the counter, it is stated by the first respondent, inter alia, that the Municipality was allotted funds under the Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns (IDSMT) for construction of a market complex and so the municipality imposed a condition at the time of auction of leasehold rights of the weekly santha to the effect that the auction-purchaser should not object either for shifting the market to the new market yard or to the constructions that would be taken up. The Municipal Council also passed a resolution on 28-2-1998 to the effect that the weekly market shall be shifted to another place near Ramnagar colony, which is very nearer to the present weekly market, soon after issuance of the work order for construction of new market complex. It is stated that in between the proposed market and the present market, only the R.T.C. Bus stand is located. The auction-purchaser of the present year O.S. No. 373 of 1999 and also I.A. No. 812 of 1999 seeking injunction restraining the municipality from making any constructions in the present weekly market and it was dismissed on merits by the Junior Civil Judge, Madanapalli and the appeal thereon C.M.A. No. 50 of 1999 was also dismissed confirming the order of the trial Court. The first respondent contended that the members of the petitioner-sangham have no legal right to continue in possession of the Municipal property as their rights emanate from the rights of the contractor, whose rights, in turn, are governed by the contractual agreement. The shifting of the market to some other place is inevitable for construction of new shopping complex under the IDSMT scheme and it is only a temporary measure, and the market will be re-shifted to the present place after construction of new shopping complex.

(3.) Since the learned Counsel appearing on both sides submitted that this writ petition itself can be disposed of, it is accordingly taken up for hearing and disposal.