CHABUNGBAM IBOHAL SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant has a grievance that his fundamental right under Article 16 has been infringed by not promoting him in the Indian Administrative Service in time as required by the provisions concerned governing the promotion to that Service. This grievance has taken an aggravated form because of promotion of his juniors.

(2.) The appellant approached Guwahati High court with the aforesaid grievance which gave rise to Civil Rule No. 256 of 1978. The writ petition stood transferred to the central Administrative tribunal, Guwahati bench by operation of Section 29 of the Administrative tribunals Act, 1985. The tribunal, instead of going through the merits of the grievance, accepted the preliminary objection raised by the State government about the delay in filing the application and dismissed the same on that ground. Feeling aggrieved, this appeal has been preferred.

(3.) To do complete justice between the parties, we thought it would be appropriate to examine the merits of the case instead of non-suiting the appellant on the ground of delay. With this end in view, the appeal was once heard on 20/10/1994, when need for perusal of the service record of theappellant from 1970 till 1982 and proceedings of the Selection Committee from 1974 till 1980 was felt. These records were produced before us on 8/12/1994 on which date hearing was closed.