ARJUN SINGH RATHORE Vs. B N CHATURVEDI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) This appeal is directed against the judgment and order of the Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court dated 18th August, 2005 setting aside the judgment of the learned Single Judge thereby allowing the writ petition filed by the respondents and further directing that promotion to the post of Scale-II Officers be held as per the Rules of 1998. The facts leading to the filing of the appeal are as under:

(3.) On 28th September, 1988 the Department of Economic Affairs (Banking Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, after consultation with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 29 of the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 notified the Regional Rural Banks (Appointment and Promotion of Officers and others Employees) Rules, 1988 (hereinafter called the "Rules of 1988") which came into force w.e.f. 28th September 1988. The Second Schedule of these Rules provided for the mode of appointment to different categories of officers. The appellants herein fell in category No. 6 whereas category No.7 dealt with the appointment of Area Managers or Senior Managers by promotion of officers from category No. 6 and inter alia provided that all the vacancies were to be filled-in by promotion from qualified and eligible persons working in the bank and that the mode of selection would be interview and assessment of performance reports for the preceding three years period. The Board of Directors of the respondent-Kshetriya Gramin-Bank adopted the Rules in a meeting held on 26th September, 1988. It is the case of the appellants that by the first of April 1999, 15 posts in all had become available for promotion under category 7 as no appointments had, in fact, been made for several years. While the vacancies still existed the Regional Rural Bank (Appointment and Promotion of Officers and other Employees) Rules, 1998 (hereinafter called the "Rules of 1998") were framed and published in the Official Gazette on 29th July, 1998. The Board of Directors of the Kshetriya Bank adopted these Rules and issued a Circular dated 15th May, 1999 conveying the information that the Rules of 1988 had been superseded and that henceforth the Rules of 1998 alone would form the basis for promotion etc. The Bank of Baroda which was the sponsoring Bank under the Regional Rural Banks Act of 1976 thereafter made an enquiry from the concerned quarters and on 15th October, 1999 addressed a letter to the Regional Rural Banks that in view of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of State of Rajathan vs. R.. Dayal and Ors., "any post which had fallen vacant prior to the amendment of the Rules would be governed by the original Rules and not by the amended Rules and in order to make matters more explicit repeated the directive by reiterating that "the posts which fell vacant prior to the publication of the amended Rules i.e. Rules 1998 would be governed by the old Promotion Rules and not by the amended Rules". A copy of the letter dated 15th October, 1999 has been appended as Annexure P-1 to the appeal.