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Showing contexts for: Nooty in A.P. State Road Transport Corpn. & Anr vs Sri Satyanarayana Transports Pvt. Ltd. ... on 5 October, 1964Matching Fragments
4. Before dealing with this point, it is necessary to set out the material facts on which the plea of bias was based. These facts centre round the attempt alleged to have been made by the Minister to get the assistance of Ramakotaiah in the matter of the election of the Election Committee of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee which had been fixed for the 28th August, 1960. At the relevant time, the Council of Ministers in the State of Andhra Pradesh was divided into two hostile groups. One group was known as the power group or the Ministerial group, and the other group in opposition was known as the United Front group. The Minister in charge of Transport, who will be described hereafter as the Minister, was one of the leading members of the power group. In fact, he was one of the candidates who contested a seat on the Election Committee. As often happens, in view of the keen rivalry between the two groups, before the date of the election arrived, both camps had begun extensive canvassing activity. The petitioner company in W. P. No. 868 of 1960 is known as Sri Satyanarayana Transport (Private) Ltd., Guntur, and Ramakotaiah is its Managing Director. The case for this company was that its shareholders are influential persons. In fact, Ramakotaiah himself was the Vice-Chairman of Narasaraopet Municipality and also member of the Senate of Sri Venkateswara University at Tirupathi. Ramakotaiah knew intimately five persons who were members of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee; they are, Ravipati Anjaneyulu, Nooti Venkateswarulu, Kapalavayi Kasi Rama Rao, Basivi Reddi, and Bhuvanam Koti Reddi; and the substance of the charge against the Minister is that he wanted Ramakotaiah to persuade his five friends to vote for him and the members of his group at the forthcoming election. Ramakotaiah tried to help the Minister, but failed; and that made the Minister very angry with him. In fact, when the Minister learnt from Ramakotaiah that he had not succeeded in persuading his five friends to vote for him, he was told by the Minister that the consequences of his failure would be unpallatable to him. It is in this angry frame of mind that the Minister heard the objections filed by the respective transport operators and decided the matter against Ramakotaiah's Company. That, in brief, is the nature of the story set out by Ramakotaiah in support of his plea that the Minister had a bias against him, and was, therefore, disqualified from dealing with the ten schemes under S. 68D (2) of the Act.