IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE SECOND DAY OF DECEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND TEN PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH WRIT PETITION No.12215 of 2000 Between: M.Muniramaiah ..... PETITIONER AND The Depot Manager, Alipiri Depot, APSRTC, Tirupati and 2 others .....RESPONDENTS The Court made the following: THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.ESWARAIAH WRIT PETITION No.12215 of 2000 O R D E R: Heard Sri S.Sreenivas Bhatt, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner. The petitioner seeks to issue a Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the Respondent No.1-the Depot Manager, APSRTC, Alipiri in keeping the petitioner under suspension from the post of Driver with immediate effect, vide the impugned Proceedings No.P1/255(13)/99- ALPR dated 08.05.2000 as illegal. The suspension of the petitioner was only made pending enquiry and the petitioner was being paid subsistence allowance at half of the pay and allowances during the period of suspension and admittedly, it is not a final order. A perusal of the suspension order goes to show that the petitioner was selected for the post of Driver under Scheduled Tribe quota and was appointed at Srikakulam Depot initially on casual basis and subsequently, his services were regularized w.e.f.01.08.1990 while he was working at Tirumala Depot. Subsequently, he was transferred to Satyavedu Depot and while he was working at Satyavedu Depot, a complaint was received against him stating that the petitioner secured the job in APSRTC by producing bogus scheduled tribe certificate. On enquiry, it was noticed that the petitioner has produced a certificate issued by the MLA alone stating that he belongs to “Konda kapu” Scheduled Tribe Community. The petitioner has not produced any certificate issued by the concerned Mandal Revenue Officer and hence the Transfer Certificate produced by the petitioner from the school indicating the caste as “Konda Kapu” got verified in the Government Junior College, Satyavedu and found that though as per the Admission Register, his caste was shown as “Kapu (Reddy)”, he got managed the clerk and got added as “konda” as against the column of the caste with different ink and produced a false certificate for procuring the job. In order to establish the genuineness of the status of the petitioner, the matter was referred to the Director, Tribal Welfare, Hyderabad who has declared that though the petitioner was given sufficient time to produce the caste certificate, he has not produced any caste certificate as required under G.O.Ms.No.58 Social Welfare (J) Department, dated 12.05.1997. Therefore, as there is a prima facie case for departmental enquiry, the petitioner was placed under suspension. The learned counsel for the petitioner raised various grounds stating that suspension of the petitioner is without enquiry and without issuing any charge sheet and hence the same is illegal and unsustainable and that the alleged report said to have been given by the Tribal Welfare Department finding that the petitioner played fraud by fabricating the caste certificate is incorrect and false. It is stated that the petitioner has produced school certificate showing that he belongs to scheduled tribe community. The petitioner made a request before the Director, Tribal Welfare Officer to grant time for producing caste certificate issued by the concerned Mandal Revenue Officer. But he failed to produce the same stating that the Mandal Revenue Officer refused to issue the caste certificate on the ground that “Konda Kapu” was not included in the Schedule Tribes list but it was included in the backward class list. It is further stated that the petitioner belongs to Kurnool District , but his foster mother brought him up in Chittoor District and for the charge sheet issued on 08.04.2000 asking him to submit explanation, he has submitted his explanation on 02.05.2000 and later on by the impugned order dated 08.05.2000 the petitioner was placed under suspension. According to the petitioner, he has produced his school certificate i.e. Transfer Certificate and in the school application copy also his caste was shown as “ST” and therefore, he was given appointment in APSRTC. It is further stated that under Sec.5 of the A.P. (SC, ST & BC) Regulation of Issue of Caste/Community Certificates Act, 1993 and Rules, 1997 made thereunder provides that the District Collector is competent authority to enquire and cancel the community certificates, whereas the Regional Manager, APSRTC, Tirupati has erroneously forwarded for ascertaining the community of the petitioner to the Director, Tribal Welfare, Hyderabad who is not competent authority, and as against the orders passed by the Collector, the Government is competent under Sec.7(2) of the said Act and therefore, the report submitted by the Director of Tribal Welfare is contrary to the Act ad Rules and the suspension made on the preliminary report is illegal and unsustainable. Admittedly, the petitioner is questioning the suspension pending enquiry alone. Even according to the petitioner, a charge sheet dated 08.04.2000 was issued asking him to submit explanation and he submitted his explanation on 02.05.2000, and thereafter, the impugned suspension has been made. The questions that arise for consideration in this writ petitioner are; 1. Whether the suspension order pending enquiry is liable to be interfered with. 2. As per the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner, whether any certificate issued by the competent authority was produced by the petitioner for securing job, so as to enable the District Collector to conduct enquiry and decide the status of the petitioner. Admittedly, the petitioner has not submitted any caste certificate issued by the concerned Mandal Revenue Officer, as contemplated under the Rules and the Orders of the Government in G.O.Ms.No.58, Social Welfare (J) Department dated 12.05.1997. The entry in the school record and the column in the Transfer Certificate cannot be treated as Caste Certificate. However, as per the preliminary enquiry, it is stated that the Transfer Certificate produced by the petitioner was got verified and there was manipulation and fabrication of even the transfer certificate as the appropriate column was made with different ink and therefore, even the Transfer Certificate was not genuine and false. When the caste certificate issued by the concerned Mandal Revenue Officer indicating that the petitioner belongs to Scheduled Tribe Community was not produced, the question of getting the status of the petitioner enquired by the District Collector under the Act and Rules does not arise. I do not see any merit in this writ petition and the writ petition is misconceived and the same is accordingly dismissed. No order as to cots. ________________ V.ESWARAIAH,J Dated: 02.12.2010 Dsr