IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTY FIFTH DAY OF JULY, TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE L.NARASIMHA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 125 of 2006 Between: 1 J.S.Nzageswara Rao, Raghavulu, working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 2 R.Siva Kumar S/o.Krishna Murthy working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 3 K.Siva Sankara Rao S/o.Mallikarjuna Rao working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 4 A.Chalapathi Rao S/o.Venkateswarlu, working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 5 B.Bala Krishna S/o.Kotaiah working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 6 Smt.N.V.A.Maha Lakshmi Bai S/o.Nageswara Rao working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 7 smt.G.Sri Devi S/o.G.B.P.V.Kutumba Rao working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 8 A.Murali Krishna S/o.Venkateswara Rao, working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 9 N.Samba Siva Rao S/o.Achutha Ramaiah working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 10 Y.V.Suryam S/o.Venkateswara Rao working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 11 M.V.Rama Krishna S/o.Madhava Rao working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 12 N.Sekhara Babu S/o.Sowri working as Sub Engineer Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam. 13 Smt.S.Sri Latha S/o.Ranga Reddy working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 14 B.K.N.S.Prasad S/o.Basva Raju working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 15 K.V.Balaji S/o.Ranga Rao working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 16 N.Sankara Rao S/o.Bhaskara Rao working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 17 Smt.K.Hema Sree Sai S/o.Narayana Murthy working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 18 Smt.P.Durga S/o.Nageswara Rao working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 19 Ch.V.Raghu Veer S/o.Krishna Rao working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 20 Smt.N.Ratnasri S/o.N.P.R.Varma working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 21 P.Venkateswara Rao S/o.Gopalam working as Sub Engineer/Telecom Civil At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam and Sl.No.10 is working as Sub Engineer Telecom at RTPP 22 M.Saleem Bagi S/o.M.KLhasim Baig working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 23 R.V.V.Deekshitulu S/o.Narasimhacharyulu working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 24 K.Anil Kumar S/o.K.V.Prasad Rao, working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 25 J.T.Kumar S/o.Surya Rao working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 26 A.P.D.V.Prasad S/o.A.N.Paradesaiah working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 27 K.Sreenivasa Reddy S/o.Venkateswara Rao working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 28 G.Subba Reddy S/o.China Ramaiah working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 29 K.Harnath S/o.K.K.Anjaneyulu working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 30 K.Srinivasa Rao S/o. Subrahmanyam working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 31 D.Babu Rao S/o.Venkateswara Rao working as Sub Engineer//Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 32 O.Venkateswara Rao S/o.Rama Chandra Rao working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 33 S.a.Rafiq S/o.Mazeed working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 34 Ch.Koteswara Rao S/o.Nagabhusanam working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 35 K.Srinivasa Rao S/o.Ramaiah working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 36 G.V.S.R.Prasad S/o.Pulla Rao working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 37 U.V.R. Varma S/o.Krishnam Raju working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 38 R.Vijaya Kumar S/o.Madan Mohan Rao working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 39 Ch.Mohan Kumar S/o.Koteswara Rao working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 40 S.Krishna Prasad S/o.Babu Rao working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 41 K.Ravi S/o.Ratna Giri working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam 42 K.Niranjana Rao S/o.Venkateswara Rao working as Sub Engineer/ Mechanical At VTPS Ibrahim Patnam ..... PETITIONER(S) AND 1 A.P.Power General Corporation Ltd., Vidyut Soudha, Khairtabad, Hyderabad AP rep by its Managing Director (1st Subsidary entity of APSE Board) 2 A.P.Power General Corporation Ltd., Vidyut Soudha, Khairtabad, Hyderabad AP (Main successor Entity of APSE Board) (1st Subsidary entity of APSE Board) 3 Government of Andhra Pradesh, Department of Energy, Represented by its Principal Secretary, Energy. .....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 declare the action of the relspondents in not giving the share of the Addl.Asst.Engineers/Civil, Telecom and Mechanical at the rate of 2 posts for every 3 Asst.Engineers recruited, ever since 1-2-99, in spite of availability of sutizable and qualified Diploma Engineers for being considered for appointment by transfer as per regulation 14 read with Annexure-III of APSE Board Service Regulations Part-III and consequently direct the 1st respondent Corporation to cause appointment by transfer to all the Sub Engineer/Civil Telecom and Mechanical to the post op Addl. Asst.Engineer/Civil Telecom and Mechanical from the respective dates corresponding to the recruitment of Asst.Engineers ever since 1-2-1999 with all attendant benefits and pass. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.G.MUKUNDA REDDY Counsel for the Respondent No.: SMTE.URMILA The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE L.NARASIMHA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 125 of 2006 ORDER: The petitioners are working as Additional Assistant Engineers in Civil, Mechanical and Telecommunication Branches of the A.P.GENCO, 1st respondent herein. It is stated that the posts of Assistant Engineers (A.Es.) and Additional Assistant Engineers (A.A.Es.), in the respective branches, carry the same duties and were treated on par with each other. They plead that according to the orders and circulars issued by the A.P. State Electricity Board, from time to time, for every three posts of A.Es. to be filled by direct recruitment, two posts of A.A.Es. must be filled, from the eligible candidates, by transfer, and that the said ratio was disturbed on many occasions. The petitioners complain that they are denied of their due place, on account of the failure of the respondents to follow the ratio mentioned above. Reliance is placed upon certain circulars issued by the respondents. Though the writ petition was filed in the year 2006, no counter affidavit is filed by the respondents. Sri G. Mukunda Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners had advanced elaborate arguments and has drawn the attention of this Court to the orders and memos issued by the respondents and the Board, from time to time. He contends that the respondents treated the two posts, referred to above, almost on par, in the context of discharge of duties, and the postings were interchangeable. He contends that not withstanding the fact that the method of recruitment and pay scales for the two posts are different, an endeavour was made to maintain balance in the ratio of 3:2, and the same was not followed for quite some time. Learned Standing Counsel for the respondents, on the other hand, submits that it was almost a matter of convenience that the ratio was stipulated and there is nothing in the A.P. State Electricity Board Service Regulations (for short ‘the Regulations’), which insists that any particular ratio must be maintained. It is also stated that the petitioners have made a general complaint and have failed to point out any specific violation. The categorization of posts, method of recruitment to the respective categories, and other matters are provided for under the Regulations - Part-III, which was adopted by the 1st respondent with necessary amendments. It is not in dispute that the posts of A.Es., on the one hand, and A.A.Es., on the other, are different, though they occur in Category-II of the Engineering Services. Not only these two, but there are other posts also, which are included in this category. A perusal of the Table appended to the Regulations discloses that the qualifications for appointment, method of appointment etc., are totally different. It may be true that circulars have been issued from time to time, directing that the officials of the two categories, referred to above, are posted almost interchangeably. The fact, however, remains that the Regulations do not provide for any ratio to be maintained between the said two posts. Therefore, the claim of the petitioners cannot be accepted. Even assuming that the orders and Circulars issued by the respondents, from time to time, have any force of law, the petitioners ought to have ventilated their grievance, as and when the alleged deviation has taken place. Except that a general complaint is made, no specific instances are cited. Under these circumstances, this Court is not inclined to grant any relief to the petitioners. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners were not accorded the proper place, in the seniority within the category, and several juniors were placed above them and over the years, they have been promoted. The grievance of the petitioners, in this regard, is totally different in nature, and if they feel aggrieved in the context of seniority, they have to file a separate writ petition, duly impleading the persons, against whom they claim seniority. It is needless to observe that it would always be open to the petitioners to pursue their remedies, in accordance with law. The Writ Petition is, accordingly, dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. _________ 25.06.2008 JSU ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{MPL} THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE L.NARASIMHA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 125 of 2006 Date: 25.06.2008 JSU