IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE FOURTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED & THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD WRIT PETITION NO : 23407 of 2008 Between: Sri.T.C. Chowdappa, S/O. T.V. Subbaiah, R/o. H.No.28/1052-12-B, Devanagar, Nandyal, Kurnool District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad Bench, Hyderabad. 2 The Post Master, Nandyal Head Post, Office, Nandyal, Kurnool district. 3 The Superintendent of Post Office, nandyal, Kurnool District. 4 The Post Master General, Kurnool Region, Krunool, Kurnool District. 5 The Director of Postal Services, O/o. The Post Manster General, Kurnool Region, Kurnool. 6 Union of India, Rep by the Chief Post Manster General, A.P.Circle, Hyderabad. 7 Sri. Srinivasulu, O/o. GDS Packer, Nandyal Head Post Office, Nandyal, Kurnool 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 pass an order, Writ, or Direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Certiorari, cal for the records Pertaining to the Orders Dated 19-06-2007 in O.A.No.820 of 2003 on the ﬁle of Central Administrative Tribunal Hyderabad Bench at Hyderabad and quash the same by declaring the order is contrary to law and consequently set aside the impugned proceedings vide letter no B4/PM/NDL/HO dated 28-01-2003 issued by the respondent No.-3 and further directed the respondent No.-2 to appoint the petitioner to the post of GDE Packer at the respondents No.-3 Office. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.T.D.PANI KUMAR Counsel for the Respondent No.: MR.A.RAJASHEKAR REDDY (ASST SOLICITOR GEN) The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED & THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD WRIT PETITION NO : 23407 of 2008 ORAL ORDER: (Per Hon’ble Sri. Justice Ghulam Mohammed) This writ petition is ﬁled challenging the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad, dated 19.6.2007 passed in O.A.No.820 of 2003. The petitioner herein is the applicant before the Tribunal. He ﬁled the above O.A. seeking to declare that the appointment of the unoﬃcial respondent as GD Packer Nandyal Head Post Oﬃce, pursuant to the notiﬁcation dated 9.8.2002, as illegal and arbitrary and that the applicant is entitled to be selected and appointed as ED Packer with eﬀect from the date on which the unoﬃcial respondent was selected and appointed by duly setting aside the notiﬁcation dated 28.1.2003 issued by the Superintendent of Post Oﬃces, Nandyal. The Tribunal having considered the rival contentions, dismissed the O.A. Having aggrieved by the same, the applicant has filed the present writ petition. Heard the learned Counsel appearing for the applicant and the learned Counsel appearing for the respondents and perused the material available on record. The facts that remained undisputed are that the applications received pursuant to the notiﬁcation dated 9.8.2002 for the post of GDS Packer, were short listed and call letters were issued to ﬁve candidates to appear before the Post Master, Nandyal, on 10.10.2002 and on the said date, only three candidates including the applicant appeared. According to the applicant, he got more marks in SSC and he produced all the documents and that unoﬃcial respondent and other candidate, who did not appear in time, submitted Xerox copies of the certiﬁcates and that as the other two candidates did not appear in time and did not produce the original documents, those persons were disqualiﬁed and the petitioner was declared as selected. But subsequently, it came to light that the unoﬃcial respondent was selected. It is the main contention of the applicant that the unoﬃcial respondent did not produce the original documents in time and he did not appear in time before the Post Master and therefore, his selection is illegal and arbitrary. On a perusal of the material available on record and the material papers produced by the respondents-authorities, it is apparent that on production of the records by the respondents, it is not disputed or denied by the applicant that the unoﬃcial respondent got more marks in SSC than the applicant. The material on record goes to show that the unoﬃcial respondent got 396 marks in SSC whereas the applicant got 377 marks. Therefore, it can easily be said that the unoﬃcial respondent is the meritorious candidate among the persons who appeared before the Post Master, Nandyal. The only contention of the applicant is that the unoﬃcial respondent did not appear in time and did not produce the original documents. In this regard, it is pertinent to note that while producing the Xerox copies of the documents before the Post Master, the unoﬃcial respondent gave explanation that he ﬁled the original certiﬁcates before the SDI (P), Atmakur while applying for another job. Having satisfied with the reason assigned by the unoﬃcial respondent and perusing the Xerox copies of the original documents, time was granted to him to produce the original documents. In this regard, the discretion exercised by the authorities, is within their domain and as such, the same cannot be questioned. In this view of the matter and in view of the fact that the unoﬃcial respondent is more meritorious candidate than the applicant and in the absence of any malaﬁdes on the part of the respondents-authorities, We have no hesitation to hold that the order of the Tribunal suﬀers from no illegality or irregularity warranting interference of this Court and the present writ petition is devoid of merits and the same is liable to be dismissed. Accordingly, the present writ petition is dismissed. No order as to costs. __________________________ Justice Ghulam Mohammed ________________________ Justice G. Bhavani Prasad Date: 4.11.2008 Nn THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED & THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD WRIT PETITION NO : 23407 of 2008 (Order delivered by Hon’ble Sri Justice Ghulam Mohammed) 04.11.2008