Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has ruled that once the state government compels an entity to pay and purchase lands for afforestation, it cannot go back on its promise of granting lease, as such action is contrary to the principle of Estoppel and the Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation. Justice A.V. Sesha Sai was allowing a petition by M/s Exotic Granites Exports of Hyderabad, seeking to declare as illegal the state government’s direction to erstwhile AP Mineral Development Corporation to reject its lease application and accord mining lease to the Corporation.
The petitioner company said that it had applied for grant of lease of 4.91 hectares for quarrying black granite in Ingurthy Reserve Forest of Warangal district. The company informed the court that after processing its application, the state government sought permission from the Centre for its approval and it was accorded on July 27, 2007. Prior to that the company had paid Rs 44.6 lakh to the government and purchased 1.64 hectares of land in Nagaram village and 4.31 hectares in Katrapally village and registered the land in favour of the government.
The petitioner company contended that the rejection of its application after compelling it to pay the money and purchase alternative land for afforestation was contrary to the principle of Estoppel under the Indian Evidence Act and the Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. After perusing the various case laws, the judge said that “The conduct of the respondents compelled and made the petitioner to pay the amounts and to purchase the lands for afforestation. Therefore, the impugned action is contrary to the principle of Estoppel and the Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation.” While allowing the petition, the judge set aside the memo issued for rejection of lease application and directed the TS government to consider the application of the petitioner for grant of lease as per law.
