D.P. Wadhwa JUDGMENT
D.P. Wadhwa, J.
1. Against the judgment dated December 12, 1996 of the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad, in O.A. No. 2239/96 filed by the respondent, the State of Andhra pradesh has come up in appeal. By the impugned judgment the Tribunal allowed the petition of the respondent and directed that the respondent be promoted to the category of Director of Town and Country Planning, in the existing vacancy, ignoring the charge memos - (1) Memo No. 2732/FL/87/27/MA dated July 31, 1995; (2) memo No. 145/B2/93-19/MA, dated October 27, 1995; and (3) Memo No. 898/B.2/94/M.A dated June 1, 1996, if the respondent is otherwise eligible. The Tribunal found that the Departmental Promotion Committee met on August 16, 1995 and prepared the panel for the panel year 1994-95, which was approved by the State Government in October, 1995. One of the persons included in the panel was promoted to the category of Director of Town and Country Planning by G.O.M. dated November 14, 1995. The Tribunal observed that the panel itself having been prepared on August 16, 1995 should lapse only on December 31, 1996 and not on December 31, 1995 as was contended by the State. The name of the respondent was included in the panel. The Tribunal, therefore, held that since the panel would lapse only on December 31, 1996 the respondent was entitled for promotion before that date. The Tribunal also noticed that the objection of the State that the panel lapsed on December 31, 1995 was never raised either before it or in the Supreme Court in a Special Leave Petition filed by the State against an interim order earlier made by the Tribunal.
2. Tribunal was concerned with the question if promotion of the respondent could be denied to him after his name had been included in the panel prepared by the DPC on the ground that the disciplinary inquiry initiated against him had not yet been terminated. The respondent had submitted before the Tribunal that the charge memo dated July 31, 1995 was served upon him just before the meeting of the DPC only to deprive him his claim of promotion and further that the charge memos dated October 27, 1995 and June 1, 1996 being subsequent to the date of meeting of DPC could not be taken into consideration for promoting him to the post of Director, Town and Country Planning. Tribunal noticed that the memo dated July 31, 1995 related to the incidents that happened in the years 1978, 1979 and 1984, which were also the subject-matter of the memo No. 1412 dated December 22, 1987. While the memo No. 1412 had been issued under Rule 19 of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Services (CCA) Rules, 1963 (for short "1963 Rules") that dated July 31, 1995 was issued under Rule 20 of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Services (CCA) Rules, 1991 (for short "1991 Rules"). Earlier memo No. 1412 was neither cancelled nor annulled before issuance of memo dated July 31, 1995 and the Tribunal was of the view that because of this circumstance memo dated July 31, 1995 could not have been issued and inquiry should have proceeded under the old Rules after the Inquiry Officer had been appointed.
3. State has contended before us that the Tribunal wrongly assumed that the charges communicated to the respondent on July 31, 1995 were belated and not only that it quashed that charge memo but also other charge memos when there was no challenge to that. Merely on the ground of delay the Tribunal should not have conferred unwanted benefits on the respondent. It was submitted that the whole approach of the Tribunal in giving