THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.24970 OF 2004 DATED 9th NOVEMBER, 2010 BETWEEN E.Dhananjaya … Petitioner And The Regional Manager, APSRTC., Kurnool Region, Kurnool District, And another. … Respondents THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.24970 OF 2004 O R D E R The petitioner, a Driver in the service of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), assails its action in imposing upon him the punishment of deferment of his annual increment for a period of two years which shall have effect in future. While imposing the said punishment under order-cum-show cause notice dated 18.04.2003, the APSRTC deemed it fit to call upon the petitioner to show cause as to why his suspension period should not be treated as ‘not on duty’ for the purpose of leave and wages. Admittedly, prior to the imposition of the punishment of withholding of the petitioner’s annual increment with cumulative effect, no separate show cause notice was issued to him. Withholding of an increment with cumulative effect has to be treated as a major punishment in the light of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in KULWANT SINGH GILL V/s. STATE OF PUNJAB[1]. That being so, it necessarily had to be preceded by a show cause notice under Regulation 12(13) of the APSRTC Employees (Classification, Control and Appeal) Regulations, 1967. Further, the issue is no longer res integra in the light of the judgments rendered by this Court in K.JAYACHANDRA REDDY V/s. D.M., APSRTC., KADIRI DEPOT, ANANTAPUR[2] and MD.ISHAQ AHMED V/s. REGIONAL MANAGER, APSRTC, MEDAK REGION, MEDAK DISTRICT[3]. In that view of the matter, the punishment imposed upon the petitioner is unsustainable. In the normal course, the matter would be remitted to the disciplinary authority for imposition of appropriate punishment following the due procedure. However, instead of prolonging the issue, I am of the opinion that the ends of justice would be sufficiently served by modifying the punishment imposed on the petitioner to that of deferment of an annual increment without cumulative effect, which would be a minor penalty. The writ petition is accordingly allowed in part modifying the impugned order-cum-show cause notice dated 18.04.2003 to the extent indicated above. No order as to costs. -------------------------- SANJAY KUMAR,J 9TH NOVEMBER, 2010 PGS ( ) THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE SANJAY KUMAR WRIT PETITION NO.24970 OF 2004 9th NOVEMBER, 2010 [1] 1991 Suppl. (1) SCC 504 [2] 2005(6) ALD 247 [3] W.P.No.24090 of 2010 dt. 28.09.2010