without leave or permission from the competent authority. The petitioner submitted his medical certificates to justify his leave on the ground of serious illness. Subsequently, the petitioner joined duty. However, though his batch mates were given upgradation much earlier, the petitioner was not considered because of the pendency of the punishment awarded in disciplinary proceedings namely, postponement of increment for two years without cumulative effect, by the 3rd respondent on 01.12.1995. Subsequently, the petitioner filed a writ petition in W.P.No.16377 of 2010 seeking direction from this Court to direct the officials to consider his application in the nature of mercy petition and this Court allowed the writ petition directing the 1st respondent to consider the mercy petition/representation and pass orders on merits within a period of eight weeks. In pursuance to the said order, the 1st respondent, by order dated 18.10.2010 in Rc.No.407/137084/AP.2(2)/2010, had modified the punishment from “postponement of increment for two years to “Black Mark”. It is the specific case of the petitioner that despite the punishment being modified to “black mark”, he was not considered for advancement on par with his batch mates. According to the writ petitioner, the action of the respondents was wholly unjustified and arbitrary.
