THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO WRIT PETITION No : 24677 of 2010 O R D E R: Heard Sri O. Manohar Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri T.S. Venkata Ramana, learned Standing Counsel for the Railways. The writ petitioner was awarded six different contracts for the purpose of enabling transportation of parcels by trains. However, it has been specified that he shall not overload the parcel vans, goods trains, etcetera. Since the writ petitioner has overloaded on at least nine different occasions, for which penal charges have been levied against him, a show cause notice was issued on 17.07.2010, pointing out that in terms of clause 15.4 of the agreement entered into by and between the writ petitioner and the railways, the railways have reserved the right to cancel the registration of the leaseholder in case of 4th default, apart from levying penalty for the overloading and hence, proposed to cancel his registration. It is also further pointed out in the show cause notice that in terms of clause 7.4 of the agreement, if the registration of the leaseholder is cancelled, as a punitive measure, for reasons of repeated overloading or for repeated violation of any of the existing stipulations, where cancellation of registration has been imposed as penalty, then the entire registration fee would be forfeited and in addition, the rest of the existing lease contracts being operated from that division would also be cancelled. Accordingly, the show cause notice has proposed to cancel the rest of the leasehold agreements also by the Divisional Railway Manager, Secunderabad. The writ petitioner has drawn a representation on 23.08.2010, in response to the said show cause notice. He was very forthright in his submission and admitted that he had paid penalty for excess overloading by Train No. 8646 East-Coast express at Howrah Station all due to the negligence exhibited by the supervisor. Since the writ petitioner has not shown any proper cause, the impugned order was passed on 28.09.2010, cancelling the rest of the registrations of the writ petitioner apart from his registration for the East-Coast express. That order is under challenge in this Writ Petition. Though several contentions have been raised in the Writ Petition and also advanced by Sri O. Manohar Reddy, learned counsel for the writ petitioner, one of the contentions canvassed by him i.e. the writ petitioner has not properly utilized the opportunity that was provided to him in filing a proper explanation to the show cause notice, deserves consideration. As was already noticed supra, the writ petitioner has filed a simple and straight forward answer on 23.08.2010 in response to the show cause notice served on him. He was frank and fair in admitting about the overloading of parcel vans all because of the negligence of his supervisor, whose work, the writ petitioner has failed to properly supervise. Since the writ petitioner could not show any effective cause to the show cause notice, the impugned order has been passed. The entire theme behind the impugned order is rested upon the repeated violation of the overloading of parcels in East Coast express. The learned counsel, Sri O. Manohar Reddy, would submit that since the writ petitioner has never challenged the findings with regard to the overloading of parcels and promptly paid up the penalties levied against him, and he has also not raised any further disputes with regard thereto, his explanation that because of his personal reasons, he could not effectively supervise the work of his supervisor, deserves some compassionate consideration. The learned counsel therefore, submits that the writ petitioner may be permitted to file a detailed representation before the General Manager of the South Central Railways, within a period of ten days from today and the General Manager may consider passing suitable orders as to whether the case of the writ petitioner is truly attracted for such a grave penal action resulting in cancellation of all the rest of the registrations for the other trains. I feel that the request made for approaching the General Manager appears to be more appropriate course to be adopted in a matter of this nature. The General Manager would be able to independently take into account and consideration all the facts and circumstances and he will be able to independently apply his mind as to whether the registration of the writ petitioner for the other trains, other than East Coast express or at least some of those registrations can still be allowed to be operated by the writ petitioner, where no allegation of overloading had taken place. I am conscious that the contract entered into by and between the parties has provided for power for cancellation of the registration for the rest of the trains also, but it is well to remember that any such power is also required to be exercised after careful consideration of the relevant facts and circumstances. It is open to him to consider whether the cancellation of the registration for the rest of the trains has to invariably follow. That is a matter for consideration by the appropriate authority. Therefore, the General Manager of the South Central Railways will be the proper person to appreciate all the circumstances relating to the working out of the contract by the writ petitioner and the Railways. He will have the benefit of the facts and circumstances pleaded by the writ petitioner herein and also the facts and circumstances as reflected in the records maintained by the railways and hence, he is a more appropriate person to make a careful assessment of the adverse effect that the overloading of parcels will have on the operations of the railways and their efficiency. Therefore, I leave it open to the petitioner to make a detailed representation, to the General Manager, South Central Railways within a period of two weeks from today and the General Manager, South Central Railways may thereafter pass appropriate orders within a further period of six weeks and communicate the same to the petitioner. With this, the Writ Petition stands disposed of. No costs. ---------------------------------- Nooty Ramamohana Rao, J 18th November 2010 Issue CC in a week ksld ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{TRK}