DIPANKAR DATTA,J. - (1.) This writ petition is at the instance of seventeen petitioners. It is the claim of the petitioners that they had encroached government revenue land measuring 200 Sq.mtrs each out of the land bearing survey No.35/P, situated at Bargat Line Village under Port Blair Tehsil, South Andaman District in the year 1990; that they started residing there along with their respective families after construction of residential building; that they had continued to reside there for the last several years without any interference; that they had obtained electric connection for lighting their residences; that on or about 28.06.2011, the respondent no.3, a staff in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman District, forcibly entered into the encroached land of one of the petitioners, viz. the petitioner no.2 with an intention to dispossess her after damaging the fencing erected by her; that being resisted, the respondent no.3 assaulted the mother and the son of the petitioner no.2 and abused them with filthy language, leading to a complaint being lodged by the petitioner no.2 against the respondent no.3; that the respondent no.3 having attempted to encroach the land belonging to one of the petitioners; a representation dated 15.07.2011 was addressed to the Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman District seeking initiation of appropriate action against him for illegally encroaching government revenue land and illegally obtaining electric and water tap connection using his official influence, but no steps have been taken; that on 26.07.2011, the respondent no.3 came to the spot along with the Tehsildar, Port Blair Tehsil, and some other revenue staff of the said office and after they forcibly evicted the petitioners huge quantity of government revenue land was handed over to the respondent no.3; that a joint complaint dated 27.07.2011 addressed to the Deputy Commissioner was submitted but even after receipt thereof, no action was taken against the respondent no.3; and that in terms of the provisions of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Land Revenue and Land Reforms Regulation, 1966, the Tehsildar or for that matter any officer of the Administration is not empowered to evict one set of unauthorized occupants from government revenue land and to hand over the same to any other person not authorized to occupy it.
(2.) Based on the above averments, it has been prayed that an appropriate legal action be directed to be taken by the respondent no.1 against the respondent no.2 being the Tehsildar and the respondent no.3 as well as to evict the latter from the government revenue land bearing survey No.35/P.
(3.) Mr. Gopala Binnu Kumar, learned advocate appearing for the respondents 1 and 2 raises preliminary objection regarding maintainability of the writ petition. According to him, the petitioners being encroachers have no legal right to seek mandamus from the Court of Writ. It is further contended by him that there is no document to show the existence of any government revenue land bearing survey no.35/P; on the contrary, some of the petitioners have annexed documents to the writ petition which would reveal that they had encroached a piece of land under Survey No.10/P. The writ petition being misconceived, he prays for its dismissal.;