STATE OF U. P. Vs. KRISHNA LAL SEHGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The respondent was working as an Assistant Engineer in the Department of Public Works in the State of U.P. His grievance was that his junior, one Ayodhya Nath, had been granted temporary promotion to the post of Executive Engineer on 3.02.1997 overlooking the respondent's seniority.

(3.) The respondent's first writ petition that he should have been considered for promotion was disposed of by the High Court by directing the appellants herein to consider the representation made by the respondent and to pass appropriate orders. Pursuant to this directive the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) rejected the representation of the respondent on the grounds (1) that the respondent was not senior to Ayodhya Nath on 3.02.1997 when he was given promotion to the post of Executive Engineer; (2) he was also not shown as senior to Ayodhya Nath on 5.01.2001 when the respondent's writ petition was disposed of by the High Court; (3) Ayodhya Nath had retired on 31.10.1998 and he could not be directed to be reverted to the post of Assistant Engineer; (4) nobody junior to the respondent was working in the post of Executive Engineer; (5) there was no post of Executive Engineer available which entitled the respondent to promotion to the post. The decision of the DPC was accepted by the State Government which communicated its rejection of the representation of the respondent to him.