HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN WRIT PETITION No. 13935 OF 1996 DATED 25TH FEBRUARY, 2010. BETWEEN M.Y. Ali Bag ….Petitioner And APSRTC, rep. By its Regional Manager, APSRTC, Mahaboobnagar and ors. ….Respondents. HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN WRIT PETITION No. 13935 OF 1996 ORDER: The relief sought for in this Writ Petition is for issuance of a Mandamus to the ﬁrst respondent to promote the petitioner as Assistant Depot Clerk (ADC) and to stay the operation of the promotion orders of his juniors in proceedings of the ﬁrst respondent dated 4.7.1996. The petitioner was appointed as a Conductor in the respondent-Corporation in the year 1966. On his removal from service on 1.2.1974 he raised an Industrial Dispute which was referred to the Additional Labour Court for adjudication. The Additional Labour Court passed an Award, in I.D.No. 57 of 1980 dated 16.5.1980, directing the respondent-Corporation to reinstate the petitioner with full back wages and continuity of service. The said Award was the subject matter of challenge in Writ Petition No. 5545 of 1980. The said Writ Petition was dismissed by order dated 23.6.1986. Thereafter the petitioner ﬁled Writ Petition No. 6071 of 1988 in which this Court passed an interim order directing immediate reinstatement of the petitioner into service. The petitioner was issued orders posting him as Conductor at Narayanpet Depot, Mahaboobnagar District. Writ Petition No. 6071 of 1988 was disposed of by order 10.12.1991 directing reinstatement of the petitioner with full backwages and consequential beneﬁts with continuity of service. The respondent-Corporation was directed to implement the said order within six months. The respondent-Corporation preferred Writ Appeal No. 871 of 1992 and a Division Bench of this Court passed an interim order for payment of 50% of the back wages to the petitioner pending final disposal of the Writ Appeal. The petitioner’s case, in short, is that he was the senior most conductor and placed at Sl.No.1 in the seniority list as on 1.8.1989; however his case for promotion to the post of Assistant Depot Clerk was not considered; meanwhile the respondent-Corporation promoted Respondents 2 to 4 who were juniors to the petitioner; and, inasmuch as the respondent-Corporation did not take any action on the representation of the petitioner, the present Writ Petition was filed. The Writ Petition was dismissed as against the fourth respondent by order dated 31.3.2009 (Endorsement of the Registry dated 24.4.2009). No counter aﬃdavit is ﬁled by any of the respondents. However Sri C.Sunil Kumar Reddy, learned Standing Counsel appeared on behalf of the ﬁrst respondent- Corporation and was heard in the matter. In absence of a counter affidavit being filed, the factual averments in the aﬃdavit ﬁled in support of the Writ Petition must be accepted as true and the petitioner held to be senior to Respondents 2 and 3 herein. Sri C. Sunil Kumar Reddy, learned Standing Counsel for the respondent-Corporation, would contend that even if it is presumed that the petitioner was the senior most among the conductors, even then the APSRTC Regulations stipulate that promotion to the post of Assistant Depot Clerk shall be by way of selection and no employee can claim promotion merely on the basis of his seniority. The APSRTC Recruitment Regulations, 1966 prescribes, in Annexure-A, the method of recruitment and the qualiﬁcations for various posts. For promotion to the post of Assistant Depot Clerk, two of the vacancies are to be ﬁlled up by promotion by selection of Light Vehicle Drivers, three vacancies are to be ﬁlled by promotion by selection of Booking Clerks and twenty vacancies are to be ﬁlled by promotion by selection of Heavy Vehicle drivers. The remaining 75 vacancies are to be ﬁlled by promotion by selection of suitable conductors. The qualiﬁcation prescribed for promotion to the post of Assistant Depot Clerk is that the Controller or Conductor or Driver must have completed his probation satisfactorily. It is evident from the Rules aforementioned that promotion to the post of Assistant Depot Clerk, from the category of Conductor, is only by way of selection and not on the basis of seniority in the lower post. The petitioner’s claim is that as his juniors have already been promoted, his case is required to be considered for promotion, from the date his juniors promoted, as a matter of course. As promotion to the post of Assistant Depot clerk is on the basis of selection, and not merely on seniority, the petitioner has no right to claim that he should be automatically promoted to the said post from the day his juniors were promoted. The ﬁrst respondent is, however, obligated to constitute a Selection Committee to consider the case of the petitioner and as that has not yet been done, I consider it appropriate to direct the ﬁrst respondent to constitute a Selection Committee which shall consider the case of the petitioner for promotion to the post of Assistant Depot Clerk from the date on which respondents 2 and 3 were promoted to the said post. The entire exercise in this regard, culminating in an order being passed, shall be completed within three months from the date or receipt of a copy of this order. Needless to state that in case the petitioner is promoted to the post of Assistant Depot clerk he shall be entitled for notional beneﬁts and the beneﬁt of pay ﬁxation accordingly. The Writ Petition is allowed to the extent indicated above. However, in the facts and circumstances of the case, without costs. ------------------------------------------------------ JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN DATED 25T H FEBRUARY, 2010. Msnr.