20. The entire circumstances revealed from the evidence on record unerringly point to the fact that the appellant had encroached upon land belonging to the respondent and without bona fides effected constructions which is verandah which is extension of residential building. The object of estoppel, as held in Madanappa’s case, would be defeated if the said illegality is recognized and allowance is granted therefor. In the contextual situation, a decision of a learned Single Judge of High Court of Andhra Pradesh in N.C. Subbayya v. Pattan Abdulla Khan (1956) 69 LW (Andhra) 52 extracted in agreement in the decision by the learned Single Judge of High Court of Madras in the decision in Bodi Reddy v. Appu Goundan (1971) ILR 2 Madras 155, is worthy to be looked into. In the decision the learned Single Judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh after posing a question “has the court an absolute discretion to award damages instead of a mandatory injunction where there is a trespass by the defendant on the plaintiff’s land?” held thus:-

“To say the building erected in such circumstances should not be directed to be removed and only damages could be awarded would, in my opinion, be ineffective, to sanction a condemnation of the plaintiff’s property and an appropriation of it for the defendant’s use…. To confine the relief to compensation in such a case is tantamount to allowing a trespasser to purchase another man’s property against that man’s will. No man should be compelled to sell his property against his will at a valuation and no person should be encouraged to do a wrongful act or commit a trespass relying on the length of his purse and his ability to pay damages for it. To say that a small strip of building site could thus be appropriated by a trespasser would be to admit a rule of law which can be applied limitlessly. In cases of trespass, the Court should ordinarily grant an injunction directing the defendant to remove the encroachment and restore possession of the vacant site to the plaintiff. Neither serious inconvenience to the defendant — trespasser nor the absence of serious injury to the plaintiff is a ground for depriving the latter for his legal right to the property.”

21. True that the learned Single Judge further held that if the plaintiff is guilty of laches amounting to acquiescence or has knowingly permitted the defendant to make the construction and made him to incur heavy expenditure without protest or objection, mandatory injunction could be declined and damages could be given…….