IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD WEDNESDAY, THE FIRST DAY OF DECEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND TEN PRESENT THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.CHANDRAIAH W.P. No.2305 of 2002 Between: L.Sriphani and another … Petitioner And State of A.P., Rep. By its Principal Secretary to Govt, Housing Department, Secretariat, Hyd., and another … Respondents THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE G. CHANDRAIAH W.P. No.2305 of 2002 ORDER: This writ petition has been filed seeking for issuance of Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in promoting such of those Technical Work Inspectors, who have acquired diploma qualification subsequently and ignoring the cases of the petitioners even though they were initially appointed with diploma qualification as arbitrary, illegal and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, ii) to direct the respondents to set aside the promotions made in favour of such of those persons who have acquired diploma qualification subsequent to their appointment as Technical Work Inspectors, iii) to direct the 2nd respondent to follow the clarification issued by the State Government vide letter dated 10.02.1999 while effecting promotion to the post of Assistant Engineers and iv) to direct the respondents to consider the case of the petitioners for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineers. Mainly this writ petition has been filed by the petitioners questioning the action of the 2nd respondent in filling up of 60 posts of Assistant Engineers by way of promotion by conducting counseling on 28th and 29th of January, 2002 without finalizing the seniority list of Work Inspector (Technical) and without following the guidelines issued by the 1st respondent. Brief facts of the case are that the petitioners were appointed as Work Inspectors (Technical) under the control of the 2nd respondent by possessing L.C.E. (Diploma in Civil Engineering) qualification. The 2nd respondent has communicated the provisional seniority list of Work Inspectors in the year 1994 and for the above, the petitioners have raised their objections but till to date, no final seniority list was communicated to them. Without finalizing the seniority list, now sought to fill up 60 posts of Assistant Engineers by conducting counseling held on 28th and 29th of January, 2002. In this connection, it is submitted that the 2nd respondent has sent intimation letter to 60 Work Inspectors as per the final seniority list, which was not communicated to the petitioners. At the time of communication of provisional seniority list, most of the seniors, who are presently directed to appear for the counseling, were not qualified and most of them have acquired Diploma in Civil Engineering during the years 1994 onwards. The 2nd respondent has not given any weightage to the Work Inspectors (Technical), who were appointed with Diploma in Civil Engineering right from their initial appointment, and sought to fill up the posts of Assistant Engineers from among the candidates who acquired L.C.E. qualification in recent years. Therefore, they brought it to the notice of the Government and the Government has issued certain clarifications and guidelines, from time to time. Without following the same, the 2nd respondent Corporation has given the promotions. Hence, the petitioners filed the present writ petition with the aforementioned prayers. The learned counsel for the petitioners reiterated the averments made in the affidavit, filed in support of the writ petition. On the other hand, the learned Standing Counsel, D.V.Sudheer Kumar, appearing for the respondents submits that while effecting promotions to the post of Assistant Engineers, the Corporation has not followed the guidelines/instructions etc., and the estimate of vacancies of Assistant Engineers also erroneously treated as vacant. Counselling conducted on 28th and 29th of January, 2002 and promotion orders issued on 17.01.2002 and 16.02.2002 are irregular. After knowing the irregularities that had been committed while giving promotions, it was decided to cancel all the promotions given on 17.01.2002 and 16.02.2002 and show cause notices were issued. Aggrieved by the same, the affected persons have approached this Court and a batch of writ petitions have been filed and obtained interim directions and thereafter, pursuant to the order of this Court, fresh show cause notices were also issued and got replies and after considering the same, reverted all the irregular promotees from the post of Assistant Engineers vide proceedings dated 19.12.2005. Assailing the same, the affected persons have again filed a batch of W.P. Nos.27497, 27483, 27910, 28137, 27717 of 2005 and 384, 391, 555, 605 and 61 of 2006 and this Court, initially, on 23.12.2005 granted status quo obtaining as on the date in the batch cases till 29.12.2005 and later extended the same until further orders. The 2nd respondent has filed its counter and stay vacate petition and at present the batch of writ petitions are pending adjudication. In view of the above, the learned standing counsel submitted that no cause would survive in the writ petition insofar as declaring that the 2nd respondent Corporation had not followed the guidelines/clarifications/instructions etc., and violated the rules, as the Corporation itself found that the counseling that was conducted on 28th and 29th of January, 2002 is in violation of rules and therefore, they were cancelled. Therefore, no further declaration in this regard need be passed. Coming to the later portion of the direction sought for by the petitioners in this writ petition, to direct the respondents to consider the case of the petitioners for promotion, is concerned as the seniority list was prepared and the 2nd respondent sought to fill up Assistant Engineers posts, in contravention of rules, and a batch of writ petitions are pending and the fact remains that the petitioners case was not considered though they are eligible for the said post, I deem it appropriate to direct the 2nd respondent Corporation to consider the case of the petitioners for promotion, if they are eligible. Accordingly, the 2nd respondent Corporation is directed to consider the case of the petitioners for promotion, if they are eligible, in accordance with law. With the above direction, this writ petition is disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs. ________________________________ JUSTICE G.CHANDRAIAH Date: 01.12.2010 LSK