IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD WEDNESDAY, THE SIXTEENTH DAY OF DECEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE SRI ANIL R. DAVE AND HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.25930 of 2009 Between: Koppula Prasad Rao and others. ...Petitioners And The State of Andhra Pradesh, Represented by its Chief Secretary to Government, Secretariat, Hyderabad and others. ...Respondents Counsel for the petitioners : Sri P. V. Krishnaiah Counsel for the respondents : Advocate General The Court made the following: ORDER: (per Sri C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, J.) This writ petition is filed for of a mandamus to declare the continuance of the present Council of Ministers of the State of Andhra Pradesh as unconstitutional and ultra vires Article 164(3) read with Forms V and VI of the Third Schedule to the Constitution of India. The only ground on which the above prayer has been claimed by the petitioners is that the oath of office was administered by His Excellency the Governor of Andhra Pradesh in a group and not individually. We have perused Article 164(3) of the Constitution. The said provision does not stipulate any particular method by which the oath of office should be administered by His Excellency the Governor to the Council of Ministers. Therefore, the Governor administered oath to the Council of Ministers in a group for the sake of convenience. The said method cannot be said to be illegal or invalid in order to declare that the Council of Ministers was not properly constituted. In this view of the matter, we do not find any substance in the writ petition. The writ petition is, therefore, dismissed with no order as to costs. ANIL R. DAVE, C.J. 16th December, 2009 C.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY, J. ARS