IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE SIXTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION NO : 24189 of 2005 Between: P.Chandra Sekhar, S/o.P.Gopal, Bus Station, APSRTC., Tirumala, Chittoor District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Regional Manager, APSRTC Tirupathi, Chittoor. 2 Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam, Reptd. by its Executive Officer, Tirupati, Chittoor 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 a writ, order or direction more particularly a writ of mandamus, declaring the impugned termination order of license order passed by the 1st respondent vide No.T2/122(50)/2005 RM (T), dt.20.10.2005, on the ground that "No private person shall run Telephone Booth at Tirumala though the 2nd respondent permitted to run several private telephone booths at Tirumala as illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory and contrary to the principlesof natural justice consequently direct the respondents to allow the petitioner to run the public telephone booth at bus station APSRT, Tirumalam,C hittor District without any interruption and pass. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.G.DASARADHA RAMI REDDY Counsel for the Respondents: MR.P.HARINATH GUPTA The Court made the following Order: THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.24189 of 2005 ORDER: The petitioner obtained licence to run private public telephone booths at APSRTC bus stops, Tirumala. The licence was granted on 01.04.2002 and subsequently the period of licence was extended from time to time. The current licence is valid up to 20.07.2011. Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD), second respondent herein, appears to have taken a decision not to give licence to private persons for running telephone booths at Tirumala. Therefore, by impugned order dated 20.10.2005, licence of the petitioner was terminated after issuing notice of termination in accordance with the terms of the licence. Law Oﬃcer of APSRTC ﬁled a counter-aﬃdavit for ﬁrst respondent. He stated that in the coordination meeting of TTD held on 24.08.2005, it was decided that the telephone booths should be run only by TTD and allotment of such booths to private persons is against the policy of TTD. Therefore, impugned order/notice dated 20.10.2005 was issued to the petitioner informing that the licence would be terminated from 20.11.2005. The Executive Officer of TTD also filed a separate counter-aﬃdavit stating that after taking the policy to run telephone booths by themselves, TTD requested ﬁrst respondent to review/cancel allotment of telephone booths in bus stations at Tirumala with a view to provide better services to pilgrims. It is also stated that all the persons to whom licences were issued for running telephone booths were not running to the satisfaction of the pilgrims and therefore, it is decided by TTD to run the telephone booths by themselves at no proﬁt and no loss basis. This Court heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned standing counsel for APSRTC as well as TTD. Admittedly the petitioner has licence. A licence can be cancelled by issue of notice and no reasons are necessary. However, when cancellation of licence is resorted by a statutory authority like TTD, the same cannot be arbitrary or irrational. The petitioner’s counsel has not demonstrated that the impugned order/notice/decision suﬀers from any of these vices. As a policy when TTD decides to run telephone booths with a view to provide better services to the pilgrims, the same cannot be arbitrary or irrational as already pointed out the impugned action was preceded by a notice. If the petitioner has any grievance about breach of the terms of the licence with regard to duration of the same, it is always open to him to claim damages by ﬁling a suit in civil Court. Writ petition is not proper remedy. With the above observations, the writ petition is dismissed. No costs. _____________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) 06th November, 2008 GHN To 1 The Regional Manager, APSRTC Tirupathi, Chittoor. 2 Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam, Reptd. by its Executive Officer, Tirupati, Chittoor District. 3 2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{MPL}