IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE THIRTY FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION NO : 10124 of 2004 Between: Nissankara Rao Venkatappaiah, S/o. Late Paparao, R/o. Etukuru Village, Guntur Mandal, Guntur District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Managing Director, A.P.S.R.T.C., Musheerabad, Hyderabad. 2 The Regional Manager, A.P.S.R.T.C., Krishna Region, Vijayawada. 3 The Depot Manager, A.P.S.R.T.C., Auto Nagar, Vijayawada, Krishna District. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue Writ Order or Direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus, to declare the impugned Letter No. 03/359(1)/04-RM(KR), dt. 09-06-2004 issued by the 2nd respondent as arbitrary, illegal, violative of principles of the Natural Justice and Article 14 of the Constitution and consequently set aside the same Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.V.R.MACHAVARAM Counsel for the Respondents: The Court made the following Order: THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.10124 of 2004 ORDER: The petitioner is owner of Hi-tech Model Bus bearing No.AP 16 W 7399. As per their policy of hiring private buses to ply on the routes of APSRTC, the petitioner’s bus was hired for a period of ﬁve years from 01.02.1999 to 31.01.2004, to ply on the route of Vijayawada, Auto Nagar to Tirupathi. Subsequently at the time of expiry of the agreement period, by communication dated 07.01.2004, second respondent advised the petitioner to produce a new vehicle of 2004 model Hi-tech type before the inspection committee on or before 31.01.2004. The petitioner allegedly acquired Ashok Leyland at a cost of Rs.16,50,000/-. When the same was produced third respondent refused to approve the same on the ground that the bus lacks air suspension feature. When the petitioner requested ﬁrst respondent, necessary instructions were given to accept the petitioner’s new bus bearing No.AP 16 TU 6111 without air suspension feature. Subsequently a new agreement was entered into on 13.04.2004 for a period of ﬁve years. Two months thereafter second respondent issued impugned letter/communication dated 09.06.2004 to the petitioner informing that he should stop the vehicle for operation with eﬀect from 16.06.2004 due to nonproviding air suspension. Aggrieved by the same, instant writ petition is filed seeking invalidation of said communication. The Law Oﬃcer of APSRTC ﬁled a counter- affidavit. The case projected therein is as follows. Hi- tech bus bearing No.AP 16 W 7399 was introduced on route of Vijayawada – Tirupathi with validity of agreement from 01.02.1999 to 31.01.2002 i.e., for a period of three years. The same was extended upto 31.01.2003 and again upto 31.01.2004. The vehicle was owned by one Sri K. Venkateswara Rao, who subsequently transferred the ownership to the petitioner on 10.09.2003. Therefore, a fresh agreement was entered into with validity from 10.09.2003 to 31.01.2004. As per the instructions of ﬁrst respondent a notice dated 06.01.2004 was issued to the petitioner requesting to replace the old bus with 2004 model Hi- tech type and produce the same before inspection committee on or before 31.01.2004. The Executive Director, APSRTC, instructed to the eﬀect that latest 2004 model Hi-tech buses to be supplied as replacement to old model buses and that new buses shall have the wheel base of 222 for Ashok Leyland vehicles. In addition to this Hi-tech hire buses shall have the air suspension as standard ﬁtment. Therefore, another notice was issued to the petitioner to produce latest 2004 model bus. It was also informed that failure on the part of the petitioner would entail in cancellation of the contract. The petitioner made a representation dated 25.02.2004 to second respondent informing that the new bus AP 16 TU 6111 is ready. Similar communication was sent to Divisional Manager. Thereafter, Executive Director (Operations) sent clariﬁcation exempting old vehicle of the petitioner from falling under the purview of modiﬁed instructions as he already procured new model bus without air suspension. Accordingly vehicle inspection committee inspected the new bus and certiﬁed the vehicle as ﬁt for operation. An agreement for validity from 13.04.2004 to 12.04.2007 was entered into and third respondent was advised to put the vehicle in operation on the same route. In the meanwhile Executive Director (Operations) issued a communication dated 27.04.2004. As per this communication it was informed that ﬁrst respondent directed to provide air suspension for all new model Hi-tech buses within one month as air suspension system can be retroﬁtted. Accordingly second respondent advised the petitioner to provide air suspension within thirty days. A notice was also issued on 10.05.2004 requesting the petitioner to do so. The petitioner then addressed ﬁrst respondent on 29.05.2004 seeking exemption from providing air suspension due to his ﬁnancial position. On consideration of the same, the request was rejected and the Chief Traﬃc Manager, Hyderabad, informed the same. Based on the same, impugned letter/communication was issued by second respondent directing the petitioner to stop the bus. It is no doubt true that initially ﬁrst respondent granted exemption to the petitioner’s new bus from having air suspension feature. As a policy the same decision was reversed. The petitioner was advised to provide air suspension feature, having regard to the interests of travelling public. Therefore, the impugned action cannot be said to be arbitrary. Even otherwise as rightly submitted by the learned standing counsel for APSRTC, the petitioner’s agreement expired on 12.04.2007. Therefore, the relief as prayed for cannot be granted. Therefore, the writ petition is dismissed. No costs. _____________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) 31st October, 2008 GHN To 1 The Managing Director, A.P.S.R.T.C., Musheerabad, Hyderabad. 2 The Regional Manager, A.P.S.R.T.C., Krishna Region, Vijayawada. 3 The Depot Manager, A.P.S.R.T.C., Auto Nagar, Vijayawada, Krishna District. 4 2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{SPJS}