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CASE NO.:

Appeal (civil) 5145 of 2006

PETITIONER:

Union of India and another

RESPONDENT:

Kunisetty Satyanarayana

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 22/11/2006

BENCH:

S. B. Sinha & Markandey Katju

JUDGMENT:

J U D G M E N T

[Arising out of Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 16572 of 2006]

MARKANDEY KATJU, J.

Leave granted.

This appeal has been filed against the impugned judgment and order

dated 22.3.2006 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Writ Petition No. 7409

of 2004.

Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.

The respondent was initially appointed as a Clerk in the Postal

Department of the Union of India on 30.11.1965 on the basis of the marks

obtained by him in the SSLC Examination. The SSLC certificate of the

respondent indicated that he belongs to the ’Konda Kapu’ community which

is admittedly a Scheduled Tribe community in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

Thereafter the respondent appeared for a departmental test for

promotion to the post of Upper Division Clerk against a post reserved for the

Scheduled Tribe community, and the respondent was promoted as an Upper

Division Clerk in Scheduled Tribe category. His promotion order

specifically stated that he has been promoted as an Upper Division Clerk

under Scheduled Tribe category vide promotion order dated 27.12.1976.

Thereafter, in 1987, he was further promoted to the next higher post, i.e.

LSG cadre, again on a post reserved for Scheduled Tribe category.

On 28.11.1994, a show-cause notice was issued to the respondent to

show cause as to whether he obtained employment on forged caste

certificate. In reply to the said show-cause notice, the respondent admitted

that he does not belong to ’Konda Kapu’ community, but he belongs to

’Kapu’ community which is not a Scheduled Tribe community. The

respondent in reply to the show-cause notice also stated that it was wrongly

mentioned in the SSC register that he belongs to ’Konda Kapu’ community

on the basis of a declaration given by his illiterate father who got the

respondent admitted in school when he was 11 years old.

By order dated 3.1.1995, the Assistant Post Master General directed

that the respondent be treated as ’OC’ community and accordingly an

alteration was made in the respondent’s Service Book stating that he belongs

to ’OC’ community.

On 11.7.1997, the competent authority i.e. Collector of Hyderabad

District passed an order stating that the respondent obtained an ST caste

certificate from the Mandal Revenue Officer although he does not belong to

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’Konda Kapu’ community, but he belongs to ’Kapu’ community, which is

not a Scheduled Tribe community. Hence, the Collector ordered

cancellation of the caste certificate of the respondent and requested the Chief

Post Master General, A.P. Circle to take action against the respondent vide

order dated 11.7.1997.

Aggrieved against that order, the respondent filed an appeal before the

State Government which was disposed of on 17.2.2001 holding that the

respondent does not belong to Scheduled Tribe community and he cannot be

considered as such, and the Postal Department may take appropriate

disciplinary action against the respondent.

Consequently a Charge Memo dated 23.12.2003 was issued to the

respondent framing the following charges against him:

"That he, while working as T/S Clerk in the Secunderabad

Postal Division, appeared for the examination held on 19.9.76

for promotion to UDC against a post reserved for ’ST’

community and subsequently he was also promoted to LSG

Cadre based on the said reservation. However, as per G.O. Ms

No. 28 dated 17.02.2001 the Government of A.P. declared that

Sri K. Satyanarayana does not belong to Konda Kapu as

declared by him and as such not entitled for the reservation

under the ST category.

That Shri K. S