( 1 ) THE question for determination in this writ petition and several other connected writ petitions is whether persons holding the post of Depot Manager in the Delhi Transport Corporation are empowered to take disciplinary action (including action for removal, dismissal and reduction in rank) against the employees who are generally working as Drivers and Conductors in the Delhi Transport Corporation falling in the category of Class III/class IV employees.

( 2 ) A controversy of somewhat similar nature had arisen earlier also in this Court when a learned Single Judge had quashed the disciplinary action initiated against the petitioners in those cases holding that in case of persons employed between April 1973 and March2, 1974 it is only the Transport Corporation or the General Manager who could initiate and take disciplinary action. The said judgment of the learned Single Judge was reversed in L. P. A. No. 6 of 1976, D. T. C. vs. Surinder Kumar, decided on 30th September 1977. This judgment gives the history and circumstances in which the D. T. C. finally came into existence.

( 3 ) IN pursuance of Section 53 (2) (c) of the Delhi Road Transport Act, the Delhi Road Tr