IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE TWENTY EIGHTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 26051 of 2008 Between: Amjad Ali, S/o. Shaik Mahaboob Ali, (E-43747), O/o. The Zonal Enforcement Squad (HZ), At Regional Manager's Office (Ranga Reddy Region), APSRTC, MGBS, Gowliguda, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Regional Manager's Office (Ranga Reddy Region), APSRTC, MGBS, Gowliguda, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. 2 The Personnel Officer, O/o. The Regional Manager's Office, MGBS, Gowliguda, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. ....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 or order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring that the action of the respondents in not paying the gratuity amount to the petitioner for his out of employment period i.e., 26061975 to 03-10-1985 in concerned with his removal as illegal, bad, arbitrary and contrary to the judgments of this HOn'ble Court and consequently direct the respondents to pay the gratuity with interest for the said period. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.P.VENKATESWAR RAO Counsel for the Respondents.: K.MADHAVA REDDY(SC FOR APSRTC) The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition is filed by the petitioner seeking a direction to the respondents to pay the gratuity amount with interest for the period during which he is out of employment i.e. from 26.6.1975 to 3.10.1985. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned standing counsel for the respondent Corporation and at their request the writ petition is taken up for final disposal at the admission stage itself. The petitioner was appointed as a Conductor on 10.1.1972 in the respondent – AP State Road Transport Corporation, Hyderabad (APSRTC) and retired from service in the capacity of Deputy Superintendent (Traffic) on 31.5.2008. While working as a conductor, he was suspended on 26.6.1975 and finally removed from service by proceedings dated 18.2.1976. Questioning the said removal order, he approached the Additional Industrial Tribunal-cum-Additional Labour Court, Hyderabad by filing I.D.No.168 of 1980 and by award dated 25.5.1985 the Labour Court set aside the removal order and directed to reinstate the petitioner into service forthwith, with continuity of service and all other attendant benefits including full back wages. The grievance of the petitioner is that the respondent Corporation has not paid him the gratuity for the period during which he was out of employment. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that once the petitioner was reinstated into service with continuity of service and attendant benefits, he cannot be denied the retirement benefits for the period during which he was out of service and extension of the said benefit does not depend upon the actual physical service in the corporation. The learned counsel further submits that the issue involved in this writ petition is squarely covered by the decision of this Court reported in M.Rama Rao v. Assistant Traffic Manager, APSRTC, Hyderabad [1] wherein this Court held that in a case where under Section 11 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the Labour Court has set aside the order of removal of an employee and directed that the employee be reinstated into service with continuity of service, the management could not deny the payment of gratuity to the employee on his retirement for the period during which he was out of employment as a result of the order of removal. In the light of the judgment of this Court referred above and in view of the submission made by the learned counsel for both the parties that the above said judgment governs the case, the writ petition is allowed in terms thereof and the respondents are directed to extend the monetary benefits to the petitioner for the period between 26.6.1975 to 3.10.1985. N.V.RAMANA,J DT.28.11.2008 msv [1] 1998(3) ALD 76