IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTY THIRD DAY OF JULY TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED and THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU WRIT PETITION NO : 26644 of 1999 Between: C. Prasanna Ratna Kumar S/o. Ch. S. Samuel Project Officer, Adult Education, R/o. Nalgonda ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Director Adult Education Saifabad, Hyderabad 2 The Government of Andhra Pradesh Rep. by its Secretary Education Department, Secretariat Buildings, Hyderabad 3 Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal Rep. by its Registrar Hyderabad .....RESPONDENT(S) 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 order direction or Writ particularly one in the nature of Writ of certiorari or any other appropriate Writ call for the record connected with (a) the proceeding of the Respondent No. 1 vide proceedings Rc.No. 13117/A/3/DAE/90.2 dated 31-3-1995; (b) Memo No. 1867/Prog-II- 2/95-6 dated 9-7-1997 of the Government of A.P., Education (Proc- II-2) Department and quash the same by setting aside the orders in O.A. No. 5144/98 dated 29-7-1999 and pass such further order or orders as the Hon’ble Court deems ﬁt and proper in the circumstances of the case. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.P.NAVEEN RAO Counsel for the Respondent No.1 & 2 SPL GP FOR TAXES The Court made the following : ORDER :: THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED & THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. RAMULU WRIT PETITION No.26644 of 1999 ORDER: ( per Hon’ble Sri Justice Ghulam Mohammed ) This writ petition is ﬁled against the order dated 29-7- 1999 passed in OA No.5144 of 1998 by the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal. The applicant in the said OA is the petitioner herein. 2. The facts stated are : The petitioner who was working as Project Oﬃcer, Adult Education, Nalgonda District at Nakrekal was the drawing oﬃcer both in regard to the salaries of the staﬀ of his oﬃce and also the organizers of Adult Education. It is stated that pursuant to a press item appeared in ‘Eenadu’ daily newspaper (Nalgonda District edition), the Deputy Director of Adult Education, Nalgonda, visited the oﬃce of the petitioner on 21-9-1990 and 25-9-1990 and issued ‘half margin memos’ with regard to the non- payment of honoraria to the organizers of Adult Education. It is stated that the Deputy Director, Adult Education was appointed as enquiry oﬃcer to conduct disciplinary enquiry against the petitioner and he was served with charge memo dated 30-7-1992 listing out six charges. It is stated that the petitioner submitted his explanation to the charge memo dated 30-7-1992 on 1-8-1992 denying the charges levelled against him. The enquiry oﬃcer after conducting enquiry submitted his report and pursuant thereto, the 1st respondent imposed a punishment of stoppage of two annual grade increments with cumulative eﬀect. Assailing the said order dated 31-3-1995 passed by the Director, Adult Education, Hyderabad-1st respondent herein, the petitioner ﬁled the present OA. The Tribunal considering the rival contentions made by the parties, dismissed the OA on the ground that the lapses committed by the petitioner are veriﬁable and the lapses, such as non-furnishing of registers and not drawing and disbursing the honorarium, kerosene and contingent charges to the organizers, through the Supervisor, i.e. the petitioner being project oﬃcer, adult education, were found to be true according to the report submitted by the Accounts Oﬃcer of Directorate of Adult Education. Aggrieved by the same, this writ petition is filed. 3. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Special Government Pleader for Taxes. Perused the impugned order passed by the Tribunal. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioner strenuously contended that the petitioner was not furnished with enquiry report before imposing the punishment of stoppage of two annual grade increments with cumulative eﬀect which is a major penalty and non-furnishing of enquiry report and not following the procedure under the rules vitiate the proceedings. It is also submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that since the petitioner has now been retired from service, the order withholding of two annual grade increments with cumulative eﬀect be modiﬁed to that of without cumulative effect. 5. On the other hand, learned Special Government Pleader appearing for the respondents made submissions in support of the impugned order passed by the Tribunal. 6. The charges levelled against the petitioner, such as, non-furnishing of registers and not drawing and disbursing the honorarium, kerosene and contingent charges to the organizers, through the Supervisor, i.e. the petitioner, found to be true according to the report of the Accounts Oﬃcer of the Directorate of Adult Education and the facts were veriﬁable with the relevant records of Directorate of Adult Education. Further the petitioner did not raise any objection at the initial stage as to the appointment of enquiry oﬃcer who conducted preliminary enquiry and submitted his explanation and, therefore, he cannot now raise such a plea. However, having regard to the fact that the petitioner has since been retired from service and the charges relate to non- furnishing of registers and not drawing and disbursing the honorarium, kerosene and contingent charges to the organizers, we are of the opinion that the punishment is disproportionate to that of the misconduct alleged and we deem it appropriate to modify the same to that of stoppage of two annual grade increments without cumulative eﬀect to meet the ends of justice. It is further made clear that the petitioner is not entitled to any amounts like arrears of salary etc. by virtue of this modiﬁcation i.e. stoppage of two annual grade increments without cumulative eﬀect. However, the same shall be counted for the purpose of pensionary benefits. 7. In the result, the writ petition is allowed and the impugned order passed by the Tribunal is modiﬁed to the extent indicated above. No order as to costs. ______________________ Ghulam Mohammed, J ______________________ C.V. Ramulu, J Dated:23-7-2008 Nrg. ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{ESWAR}