IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TWENTY FIFTH DAY OF AUGUST TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED and THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU WRIT PETITION NO : 24426 of 1999 Between: AP Town and Country Planning Technical Employees Association rep. By its General Secretary, Oﬃce of Director of Town &Country Planning AC Guards, Hyderabad ..... PETITIONER AND 1. The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad Town Planning Technical Staff Association, rep. By its President 2.The Govt. of AP rep. By its Secretary, Municipal Admn. Department, AP Secretariat, Hyd. 3. The Commissioner and Spl.Officer, MCH, Tank Band Road, Hyd. 4. The Govt. of AP rep. By its Principal Secretary to Govt., Municipal Administration and Urban Development Dept., AP Secretariat, Hyderabad 5. The Director of Town and Country Planning, Andhra Pradesh, AC Guards, Hyd. 6. The AP Administrative Tribunal rep. By its Registrar, Purana Haveli, Hyd. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to issue a writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of a writ of certiorari calling for the records relating to the passing of the impugned judgment in OA No.6458 of 1997 dated 19-11-1999 passed by the AP Administrative Tribunal and GO Ms.No.439, dated 20-10-1995 and quash the same as arbitrary and illegal and pass such order or orders as this court deem fit and proper. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.S.SATYAM REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: MR.MIRZASAFIULLA BAIG The Court made the following : ORDER :: THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED & THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU WRIT PETITION No.24426 of 1999 ORDER: ( per Hon’ble Sri Justice Ghulam Mohammed ) This writ petition is ﬁled by the AP Town and Country Planning Technical Employees Association represented by its General Secretary against the order dated 19-11-1999 passed in OA No.6458 of 1997 by the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad, and also GO Ms.No.439, dated 20-10-1995 and to quash the same as being arbitrary and illegal. 2. The 1st respondent-the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad Town Planning Technical Staﬀ Association, represented by its President, ﬁled the above OA No.6458 of 1997, a) to declare the action of the oﬃcial respondents in not repatriating the deputationists to their parent department as per Rules as illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction, b) to declare that as per Rules the employees of the Directorate of Town and Country Planning are not entitled to 50 % posts of Assistant Town Planners in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad; and c) consequently direct the oﬃcial respondents to enforce the statutory rules and ﬁll up the posts strictly in accordance with the Rules issued in GO Ms.No.439, dated 20-10-1995. 3. The petitioner not being party to the proceedings in OA No.6458 of 1997 sought leave to ﬁle this writ petition against the order dated 19-11-1999 passed in the said OA and this Court by order dated 24-11-1999 in WPMP No.30425 of 1999 granted leave. 4. The main grievance of the applicant-1st respondent herein in the OA was that the staﬀ working in Directorate of Town and Country Planning are occupying the posts in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad and, therefore the promotion avenues of the staﬀ working in Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad are marred, the staﬀ working on deputation basis in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad have to be repatriated to their parent department i.e. Directorate of Town and Country Planning. 5. The AP Administrative Tribunal, by the impugned order disposed of the said OA, the operative portion of the order reads thus: “Keeping the facts and submissions in view and in view of our ﬁndings, we direct the ﬁrst respondent to take appropriate decision to withdraw the deputationists from the Corporation in view of issue of Special Rules for the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Town Planning Service as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of three months.” 6. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel for the 1st respondent. Perused the impugned order passed by the Tribunal. 7. On the request made by the Town Planning Supervisors working in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad for creation of promotional avenues to the superior post of Assistant City Planner, the Government has de-cadered 33 1/3% of posts of Assistant City Planners and re-designated them as Assistant Town Planners and made available to the staﬀ of the Municipal Corporation for their promotional avenues vide GO Ms. No.94, dated 8-2-1978. Subsequently, the de-cadered posts were further enhanced to 50 % of the total posts of Assistant Town Planners for the promotional avenues of Municipal Corporation employees. Whereas, the case of the petitioner herein is that the staﬀ working in Directorate of Town and Country Planning are transferable to work any where in the State either by promotion or by transfer including in Municipalities constituted under the AP Municipalities Act, 1965 and AP Municipal Corporations Act, 1994 and the post of Assistant City Planner listed in Schedule-C appended to Section 130 of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, is a State civil service post under Section 3 of the AP Local Government Service (Declaration of State Civil Service) Act, 1956. 8. It is to be noted that the Government framed Special Rules for the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Town Planning Service in GO Ms.No.439, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department, dated 20-10-1995, for short, “Special Rules”. After the issuance of Special Rules, the posts of Assistant Town Planner in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad have to be filled by the persons holding the posts of Town Planning Assistants and Supervisors of Town Planning Branch belonging to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad Service, and if persons in the feeder category are not available, power is vested to ﬁll up the posts by direct recruitment. The Special Rules stipulate, in respect of the posts of Assistant Town Planner, in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, to be ﬁlled by the persons holding the posts of Town Planning Assistants and Supervisors of Town Planning Branch belong to the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad service subject to earmarking of 50 % posts to the employees of Corporation as contained in GO Ms.No.612, dated 19-5-1979. 9. In the circumstances, we do ﬁnd any illegality or irregularity in the impugned order warranting interference by this Court, accordingly the writ petition is dismissed. However, if the members of the 1 st respondent-Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad Town Planning Technical Staﬀ Association are working in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, on the cadre strength of AP Town Planning Service, as the posts are State civil services posts, they shall not be disturbed. The remaining staﬀ of the 1st respondent working on deputation basis be repatriated to their parent department. This exercise shall be completed within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. We make it clear that we have not said anything on the merits or otherwise on GO Ms.No.612, dated 19-5-1979 and GO Ms.No.439, dated 20-10-1995. No order as to costs. ______________________ Ghulam Mohammed, J ______________________ C.V. Ramulu, J Dated: 25-8-2008 Nrg. ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{ }