IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE FIFTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU WRIT PETITION NO : 19197 of 2008 Between: Nalla Rambabu, S/o. Surya Rao, Gokavaram A.P.S.R.T.C., R/o. Teachers colony, Gokavaram, Gokavaram Mandal, East Godavari district. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The A.P.State Road Corporation, rep by its Depot Manager, Gokavaram, East Godavari district. 2 The Regional Manager, A.P.R.T.C. Rajamundry, East Godavari 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 issue an order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the impugned proceedings dated 10.10.2007 in No.PA/114(9)/07-GKRM issued by the 1st respondent herein deferring the annual increment for a period of 2 years which shall have the eﬀect of postponing future increments without conducting enquiry and conﬁrmed the same in the proceedings dated 19-4-2008 in No.PA/20(34)/2008-RM;EG by the 2nd respondent as arbitrary, illegal, unjust and violative of principles of natural justice and consequently set aside the same directing the respondents herein to provide increments as usual with all consequential beneﬁts and pass Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.S.A.RAZAK Counsel for the Respondent No.: C.PRAKASH REDDY(SC FOR APSRTC) The Court made the following : ORDER The issue that arises for consideration in this writ petition is squarely covered by a Judgment of this Court reported in Sk.Masthan vs., Managing Director, APSRTC and others[1] whereunder it was held that imposition of major penalty with cumulative eﬀect without conducting any enquiry, is arbitrary and illegal. In the present writ petition also, admittedly, though punishment of stoppage of annual increment for a period of two years with cumulative eﬀect was imposed, no enquiry whatsoever was conducted. Therefore, the impugned order is liable to be set aside. However, instead of remanding the matter for re-consideration and putting the petitioner to the hardship of facing enquiry at this length of time, I deem it appropriate to give a quietus to the litigation here itself by modifying the order dated 19.4.2008 to be read as punishment of stoppage of annual increment for a period of two years without cumulative eﬀect. Further, it is made clear that the petitioner is not entitled to any monetary beneﬁts, therefor, till the date of this order. Writ petition is accordingly disposed of. No costs. __________ 05-09-2008 [1] 1999(2) ALT 109 Note: Issue CC by one week (B.O) rkk