LAWS(SC)-2010-4-9

BINDU SEHGAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

Decided On April 08, 2010
BINDU SEHGAL Appellant
V/S
UNION OF INDIA Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave calls in question the correctness of an order passed by the High Court of Delhi whereby C.W.P. No. 586 of 2001 filed by the appellant for a writ of mandamus directing grant of financial upgradation to her in terms of the Assured Career Progression (ACP) has been dismissed.

(2.) Pursuant to an advertisement issued by the Union Public Service Commission inviting applications from eligible candidates for direct recruitment to the post of Hindi Officer in the Border Road Development Board, under the Department of Surface Transport, Ministry of Transport, the appellant was selected and appointed against the said post in September, 1986, and confirmed against the same w.e.f. 23rd October, 1988. The appellant's case is that persons similarly situated and possessing similar educational qualifications as the appellant who had been recruited through the U.P.S.C. in the year 1986 and allocated to Central Secretariat Official Language Service had been promoted as Senior Hindi Officers/Varisth Hindi Adhikharis after putting in a service of just about 8 years. Some of them had even been promoted to the post of Joint Director while the appellant continued to stagnate as a Hindi Officer in her department. A representation made by the appellant for grant of promotion appears to have been considered in consultation with the Ministry of Defence (Finance), but the appellant was advised to await the recommendations of the Fifth Central Pay Commission. A work study was also ordered although no such study, according to the appellant, was conducted.

(3.) The appellant's further case is that even when the Parliamentary Committee on Official language and the Central Hindi Implementation Committee headed by the Prime Minister have time and again recommended that a separate cadre be formed for providing promotional avenues to Hindi Officers working in subordinate offices in various Ministries and undertakings and although the said recommendations were accepted with the modification that cadres be formed wherever the same were feasible yet the same were ignored by the Border Road Organization, who remained content with the introduction of what is known as ACP Scheme. The scheme, according to the appellant, envisages two financial upgradations the first falling due after completion of 12 and the second after 24 years of regular service in cases of acute stagnation. It is not in dispute that the scheme was made applicable in the case of directly recruited "B" Group Hindi Officers also.