RUPESH KUMAR MEENA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is an IPS Officer of Tamil Nadu Cadre. He was selected against a vacancy meant for Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. He filed the present appeals challenging the orders[dtd. 26/8/2011 in W.P.(C) No.6215 of 2011 and 21/10/2011 in Review Petition No.612 of 2011 ] passed by the High Court[High of Delhi at New Delhi ]. Vide the order dtd. 26/8/2011, the High Court upheld the order dtd. 8/3/2011 passed by the Tribunal,Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, Delhi by which the applicationO.A. No.2326 of 2010 filed by the appellant was dismissed. Subsequently, review petition filed by the appellant was also dismissed by the High Court.

(2.) Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that one Rishikesh Meena appeared in Civil Services Examination held in the year 2003. As per the merit list, he was selected in the Indian Police Service (IPS) and was allocated West Bengal cadre. He again appeared in 2004 Civil Services Examination and qualified against the vacancy of an IPS Officer. As he was already serving as an IPS Officer, he never chose to join the 2004 batch, as he was to lose one year seniority. In this batch, he was even offered 'insider' vacancy of IPS cadre in the State of Rajasthan, however, he did not accept the same as well.

(3.) The argument raised by the learned counsel for the appellant is that, the stand of the respondents that when the vacancy was offered to Rishikesh Meena, the same stood filled, was wrong. He submitted that, ever since the appellant was appointed to IPS and allocated the Tamil Nadu cadre, he has been serving in that State. The only issue for consideration in the present appeal is regarding his allocation to Rajasthan cadre on 'insider' vacancy for which he has a legitimate right, being eligible and entitled to the same, as two other candidates, senior to him in the merit list, had not joined the Rajasthan cadre against that vacancy. It is not a change of cadre rather merely a correction. The situation became clear only in the year 2010 when despite the Tribunal's order in favour of Rajesh Kumar, he did not join to occupy the 'insider' vacancy in the State of Rajasthan, as he was selected in the IAS cadre, during the pendency of the writ petition filed by the Union of India. Immediately thereafter, the appellant had raised his grievance. There is no delay as such. It was further argued that there are numerous examples wherein similar adjustments were made by the Union of India later on, hence, delay does not matter. He further submitted that the said vacancy is still available, as it was not filled up.