IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF JULY TWO THOUSAND AND TEN PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.11720 of 2008 Between: Defence Laboratories School’s Staff Association Hyderabad. … Petitioner And Govt., of India, rep., by its Secretary, Ministry of Defence, South Block, New Delhi & others. … Respondents Counsel for the Petitioner: Sri N.V. Anantha Krishna Counsel for respondents 4-6: Sri P.S. Rajasekhar The Court made the following: THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.11720 of 2008 ORDER: At the interlocutory stage, the writ petition is taken up for hearing and disposal with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties. This writ petition is filed for a Mandamus to declare the action of the respondents in seeking to privatize respondent Nos.5 and 6 schools without considering and disposing of representation dated 16.02.2008 submitted by the petitioner to respondent No.2 through respondent No.4, as illegal. The petitioner is the association of the staff working in respondent Nos.5 and 6 schools. Feeling aggrieved by the proposals of respondent Nos.1 and 2 in seeking to handover the management of the schools to another agency, they made a representation on 16.02.2008 to respondent No.2 through respondent No.4. Claiming that even without disposing of the said representation, respondent Nos.1 and 2 are seeking to privatize the schools, the present writ petition is filed. At the hearing, Sri N.V. Ananta Krishna, learned counsel for the petitioner, reiterated the pleas raised by the petitioner in their affidavit. Sri P.S. Rajasekhar, learned counsel for respondent Nos.4 to 6 on whose behalf a counter affidavit has been filed, submitted that the petitioner’s representation dated 16.02.2008 was returned by respondent No.4 with an endorsement that the letters, which were referred to in the said representation, may be put up along with the representation and that having received the said representation back on 19.02.2008, the petitioner has suppressed the said fact and filed the present writ petition by raising a false plea that their representation is pending. The learned counsel for the petitioner, however, submitted that immediately after taking back the representation returned by respondent No.4, the petitioner has re-submitted the same along with all the letters required by respondent No.4. He, however, stated that those letters were informally handed over along with the representation without any acknowledgement. The petitioner being the association representing the staff members of respondent Nos.5 and 6 schools are entitled to ventilate their grievance before the competent authority. Though there is no statutory provision in this regard, I am of the opinion that fairness requires that the legitimate grievances raised by the petitioner, shall be redressed by considering the representation, if any made by them. I am also of the further opinion that till the representation is considered and a decision is taken thereon, it may not be appropriate for respondent Nos.1 and 2 to proceed with the proposed privatization of respondent Nos.5 and 6 schools. In this view of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of without going into the various aspects raised by the petitioner with the direction to respondent No.4 to forward the representation said to have been re-submitted by the petitioner to respondent No.2, if not already done. Till such time as respondent No.2 considers the petitioner’s representation and a decision thereon is communicated to the petitioner, the proposal to privatize respondent Nos.5 and 6 schools shall not be given effect to. The above direction will not apply, if the petitioner has not re-submitted the representation returned by respondent No.4 on 19.02.2008. As a sequel to disposal of the writ petition, WPMP.No.15102 of 2008 and WVMP.No.3858 of 2008 are disposed of as infructuous. __________________________ C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Date: 13.07.2010. ES