THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM AND THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE R.KANTHA RAO WRIT PETITION No. 16147 of 2010 Between: Ch. Venkata Ratnam Petitioner And State of Andhra Pradesh rep. by its Special Chief Secretary to Government and others. .. Respondents THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM AND THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE R.KANTHA RAO WRIT PETITION No. 16147 of 2010 Order: (Per Hon’ble Sri Justice Goda Raghuram) The writ petition is mis-conceived. It is directed against a common order dated 23.12.2009 of the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal (for short ‘the Tribunal’), Hyderabad in O.A. Nos. 2155 of 2006 and 5015 of 2006. The later O.A. was filed by the petitioner herein, challenging the Charge Memo dated 1.6.1998 and consequential memo dated 17.2.2006, initiating disciplinary proceedings against him on the allegation of his involvement in the registering several documents without verifying the date of purchase of stamps sold by stamp vendors of Guntur and Vijayawada etc. The charge memo was assailed on the ground that the disciplinary enquiry was delayed from 1998 and that such delay in the conduct of disciplinary proceedings would amount to waiver and at any rate, causes trauma to the charged employee/public servant; that continuance of disciplinary proceedings would be violative of Article 14. The Tribunal, by the order impugned herein, rejected this contention holding that the respondents cannot be held to have been negligent in proceeding with the enquiry as several Registering Officers, Stamp Vendors and others were involved in a large scale scam involving ante dating of stamps, documents and vending them for the purpose of avoiding enhanced stamp duty and causing considerable loss to the revenues of the State. In view of the extensive investigation involved, there was inevitable delay in concluding the disciplinary proceedings. Hence, the delay cannot be attributed to any negligence on the part of the State, rightly concluded the Tribunal. We concur. The writ petition is dismissed at the stage of admission. No costs. _____________________ GODA RAGHURAM, J Date: 14.7.2010 _________________ R. KANTHA RAO,J PNB