IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE THIRTIETH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU WRIT PETITION No.18965 of 2008 Between: 1 K. Ramakrishna Reddy, S/o. Late Narayana Reddy, R/o. 5-8-120/5/E, Kalwakunta Road, Shanthinagar, Sangareddy, Medak District. 2 M. Radhakrishna Rao, S/o. Hanumantha Rao, R/o. 1-3-80/B/1, Venkatshwa Colony, Medak, Medak District. ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 APSRTC, Rep. by its Managing Director, Musheerabad, Hyderabad. 2 The Executive Director (Hyd & KRMR), APSRTC, M.G.B.S., Gowliguda, Hyderabad. ....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 issue an appropriate Writ or direction particularly one in the nature of WRIT OF MANDAMUS, declaring the action of the respondents in not promoting the petitioners for the post of Jr. Asst. Personnel, and not communicating the results to the Petitioners in respect of marks obtained in the test conducted on 22-07-2007 in respect of the post of Jr. Asst. and not passing any order on their representations dated 30-7-2007, 18-10-2007, 14-11-2007 as arbitrary, illegal and in violation of Art. 14, 16 & 21 of the Constitution of India contrary to the Recruitment Regulations of the respondents corporation, and also in the violation of principles of natural justice, and consequently, direct the respondents to consider their cases for promoting them as Jr. Asst. along with others who were promoted in pursuance of the results declared on 27-07-2007 along with all consequential benefits in the interest of justice and fair play. Counsel for the Petitioners: MR.V.NARASIMHA GOUD Counsel for the Respondents : SMT.B.G.UMA DEVI FOR R1&2 The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU WRIT PETITION No.18965 of 2008 ORAL ORDER: This Writ Petition is ﬁled seeking a Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in not promoting the petitioners for the post of Junior Assistant and not communicating the results in respect of the test conducted on 22-7-2007 for the said post as arbitrary and illegal. It is the case of the petitioners that they have appeared for the test conducted on 22-7-2007 for the purpose of promotion to the post of Junior Assistant, but the results of the said test were not announced, in spite of several representations being made by them. Whereas, in the counter filed by the respondents, it is stated that after the examination was conducted and after the papers were valued, they came to know that some malpractices were adopted by the petitioners; therefore, the results of the examination conducted on 22-7- 2007 could not be announced. It is further stated that one Conductor, who attended the qualifying examination gave a complaint on 25-7-2008 stating that the Conductors, who are working in the Regional Manager’s Oﬃce, Medak have involved in malpractice while writing the examination at Room No.8. He has also enclosed Xerox copy of the Mathematics answers to the questions, which were stated to be the basis for malpractice. In view of the complaint, the answer books of petitioners were re-veriﬁed with that of the answer papers enclosed to the complaint. After veriﬁcation of answer book of the 1st petitioner, it was noticed that the answers written by him are exactly tallying word to word with the malpractice chit stated to be passed on to him; hence, the marks awarded were rounded oﬀ for those answers and the same were not taken into account and were not calculated while granting qualifying marks. The said exercise of the respondents seems to be without giving any notice to the petitioners nor informing that they have involved in the alleged misconduct of malpractice or calling for an explanation etc. No such procedure was followed. Their results were not announced till date. On the other hand, on a perusal of the records, it was found that the marks awarded were rounded oﬀ and the answers were struck off. This could not have been done by the respondents without conducting any enquiry into the matter. This is not a case where the petitioners were caught redhanded while writing the examination etc. This seems to be on the basis of a complaint given by a Conductor whose name is not revealed till date. This all appears to have been made with a suspicion without there being any substantial evidence. In the circumstances, the respondents are directed to declare the results of the test conducted on 22-7-2007 for the purpose of promotion to the post of Junior Assistant, by taking into consideration the original valuation marks allotted to the petitioners. This exercise shall be completed within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this Order. With the above directions, the Writ Petition is disposed of. No order as to costs. 30-10-2008 prk