IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE SEVENTH DAY OF AUGUST TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED and THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.RAMULU WRIT PETITION NO : 13530 of 2007 Between: Smt.P.Kanakadurgamba W/o.Y.anjaneyulu Code No.134, Konayapalem I Chandralapadu Mandal Krishna District Unders ordrs of Termination) ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Child Development Project officoer, ICDS Nandigama, Krishna District 2 The Project Director, DWCOA, Vijayawada Krishna District 3 The Regional Dy.Director, Dept of Women and Child Welfare, Eluru, West Godavari district 4 The District collector, machilipatnam Krishna District 5 The Sub collector, Vijayawada Krishna District 6 The Commissioner and Director women Development and Child Welfare, AP hyderabad 7 The Govt of AP., rep.by its Prl.Secretary, Women and Child Welfare Department, secretariat, 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 to issue a writ order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of certiorari dully calling for the records connecting with orders of the Hon`ble AP Administrative Tribunal in OA.No.826/2004 dated 6.4.2006 as illegal,arbitrary,and contrary to the Judgement of this Hon`ble court in WP.No.3361 of 2001 dated 7.3.2001 while granting leave to the petitioner to challenge the orders in OA.No.826/2004 dated 6.4.2006 as is not a party to this said judgement ii. to call for the records connected with the impugned proceedings No.2/B/2006 dated 17.1.2007 of the 1st respondent and set aside the same as it is contrary to the rules enquiry and also principles of natural justice under articles 311 of the constitution of India and also arbitrary,. iii. to direct the respondents not to proceed further with regard to the appointment of Anganwadi woker pursuant to the interviews condcuted on 8.6.2007 as per the Notiﬁcation said to have pasted at Grampanchat on 21.2.2007 and to pass Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.D.LINGA RAO Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR WOMEN DEV. & CHILD WELFARE ORDER: (Per Sri Justice GHULAM MOHAMMED) This Writ Petition is ﬁled for a Certiorari to call for the records relating to the orders of the A.P. Administrative Tribunal passed in O.A.No. 826 of 2004 dated 6.4.2006 and the records connecting with the proceedings dated 17.1.2007 of R1 and quash the same as illegal and arbitrary. Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner-applicant was appointed as Anganwadi Worker after due process of selection on consolidated pay of Rs. 500/- by the Mother Committee constituted for ICDS Project, Nandigama, vide orders No. 1/99 dated 1.1.1999. In pursuance of the above said orders, the petitioner-applicant joined duty and submitted joining report on 1.1.1999 and discharging the duties of Anganwadi Worker. It is submitted that after appointment she was deputed for training on diﬀerent dates and she was appreciated by the District Collector and District Magistrate, Krishna District, Machilipatnam during the years 2002,2006 and 2007 and she has put in nearly 8 ½ years service as Anganwadi Worker and aspiring for regular appointment as Anganwadi Supervisor on completion of ten years as Anganwadi Worker, which is essential for the said appointment. While things stood thus, a memo No. 128/B1/2002 dated 30.10.2002 was issued by the ﬁrst respondent seeking an explanation from the petitioner with regard to certain allegations for which, she submitted an explanation on 7.11.2002 to the ﬁrst respondent. Again the ﬁrst respondent issued a memo No. 27/B1/2003 dated 10.9.2003 for which also the petitioner submitted her explanation dated 20.9.2003. Again on 21.9.2005, another memo was issued by the ﬁrst respondent seeking explanation from the petitioner for which she submitted her detailed explanation and not satisﬁed with the said explanation the ﬁrst respondent vide proceedings No. 2/B/2006 dated 17.1.2007, issued orders, terminating the services of the petitioner as Anganwadi Worker with Code No. 134, Konayapalem with immediate eﬀect, for which the petitioner- applicant submitted a detailed representation to the 4th respondent requesting his intervention with regard to the impugned proceedings, but no orders were passed. Hence, she preferred O.A.No. 826 of 2004 under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 praying the Tribunal to declare the action of the second respondent in stopping the functioning of Anganwadi Workers in Gamdamvaripalli and Kancharuvu Centres vide Memo NO. 762/03 dated 24.11.2003 as illegal and arbitrary. The Tribunal dismissed the O.A holding that the Anganwadi Workers are not civil servants and they are neither Government servants nor employees of the Local Authorities. It further held that as there is no notiﬁcation issued under Section 15(2) of the Act by the State Government, it has no jurisdiction to adjudicate the dispute raised by the Anganwadi Workers. Hence, the present Writ Petition. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that when once the petitioner-applicant was selected by the Selection Committee following the due process of law in the year 1999 she is eligible for promotion to the higher post i.e., Anganwadi Supervisor, which is a cadre post. He also submits that to deny the promotion to the petitioner, she was terminated without any notice and without even conducting any enquiry, merely basing on the allegations made by the villagers, therefore, the termination is contrary to the principles of natural justice. On the other hand, the learned Government Pleader contended that there were allegations made by the villagers and those allegations are serious in nature and that the petitioner used to answer very carelessly and arrogantly whenever the villagers asked about her attendance to Anganwadi center. He further stated that she is also not conducting Flag Hoisting on 15th August. When asked by villagers for conducting Flag Hoisting she used to say that she need not call CDPO, Supervisor, President etc., for hoisting the flag. Therefore, the order under challenge need not be gone into and there are no merits in the writ petition and the same is liable to be dismissed. Heard the learned counsel appearing for both sides. We have perused the order impugned. It is not in dispute that the petitioner applicant was appointed as Anganwadi Worker, after due process of selection, on consolidated pay of Rs. 500/- by the Mother Committee constituted for ICDS Project, Nandigama vide orders dated 1.1.1999. After that she joined duty by submitting her joining report on 1.1.1999 and discharging the duties of Anganwadi Worker. It is also not in dispute that the applicant-petitioner was deputed for training on diﬀerent dates and she had put in nearly 8½ years service as an Anganwadi Worker and she is aspiring for regular appointment as Anganwadi Supervisor on completion of ten years of service. Further it is also not in dispute that the ﬁrst respondent issued memos dated 30.10.2002, 10.9.2003 and on 21.9.2005 and the petitioner-applicant submitted her explanations dated 7.11.2002, 20.9.2003. It is also not in dispute that the ﬁrst respondent vide proceedings dated 17.1.2007 terminated the services of the petitioner-applicant as Anganwadi Worker, to which she submitted a detailed representation to the 4th respondent requesting his interference with regard to the impugned proceedings but no orders were passed. As seen from the record, no enquiry was conducted and no opportunity of being heard was given to the petitioner- applicant by the ﬁrst respondent before issuing proceedings dated 17.1.2007 terminating her services as Anganwadi Worker. Therefore, the impugned order dated 17.1.2007 is in violation of principles of natural justice. Hence, the impugned order dated 17.1.2007 is set aside. The respondents are directed to reinstate the petitioner in to service forthwith with all consequential benefits. Accordingly, the Writ Petition is allowed. No order as to costs. _____________________________ GHULAM MOHAMMED ,J _________________________ C.V.RAMULU, J Dt. 07.08.2008 KA ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1 Child Development Project officer, ICDS Nandigama, Krishna District 2 The Project Director, DWCOA, Vijayawada Krishna District 3 The Regional Dy.Director, Dept of Women and Child Welfare, Eluru, West Godavari district 4 The District collector, machilipatnam Krishna District 5 The Sub collector, Vijayawada Krishna District 6 The Commissioner and Director women Development and Child Welfare, AP hyderabad 7 The Govt of AP., rep.by its Prl.Secretary, Women and Child Welfare Department, secretariat, Hyderabad 8. CC to G.P. for Women Development and Child Welfare, High Court of A.P., Hyderabad. 9. 2CD copies