LAWS(SC)-2019-8-92

GANGA VISHAN GUJRATI Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

Decided On August 21, 2019
Ganga Vishan Gujrati Appellant
V/S
STATE OF RAJASTHAN Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Adjudicating on a vexed issue of service jurisprudence, a Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature of Rajasthan allowed a batch of Special Appeals and reversed a judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 19 April 2018. The consequence of the judgment of the Division Bench dated 6 August 2018 is that the writ petition instituted by the appellants under Article 226 of the Constitution stands dismissed. This has given rise to the present batch of appeals. Since similar issues arise, all the appeals were heard together.

(2.) The appellants were appointed as Patwaris in the Revenue Department on 21 December 1993. On 17 June 2011, an advertisement was issued by the State of Rajasthan for holding a departmental examination to select candidates for 93 vacancies in the post of Land Records Inspector ("LRI") . The vacancies related to the years 2008-09 and 2009-10. A fresh advertisement dated 28 January 2013 notified an increase in the number of vacancies to 155, including the vacancies for 2010- 11. In response to a query made on 24 December 2014 under the Right to Information Act 2005, a year-wise bifurcation of the 155 vacancies was provided indicating that:

(3.) On 16 May 2013, the appellants appeared for the departmental examination and were declared successful for the post of LRI. On 7 November 2013, a provisional seniority list was issued from 1 April 2012. The grievance of the appellants is that though (in their submission) they were appointed against vacancies that arose in 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, their names were not included in the provisional seniority list. On 31 March 2014, the appellants were promoted as LRIs in pursuance of which they have been working on that post. On 12 March 2015, the Rajasthan Revenue Board ("Board") issued a communication to the Collector to prepare a list of persons who were appointed as LRIs against vacancies for the year 2009-10. The names of the appellants did not find mention in the seniority list as on 1 April 2012. Orders were issued on 11 June 2015, 6 July 2015 and 6 August 2015 promoting LRIs to the post of Nayab Tehsildar, treating them to have been appointed on the post of LRI against the year of promotion in which the vacancies arose. This was in terms of a notification dated 8 October 2014 by which Rule 171-A of the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Land Records) Rules 1957 ("1957 Rules") was amended to change the criterion for determining seniority from the date of continuous officiation on the post of LRI to the recruitment year of promotion. The appellants were aggrieved by the denial of the benefit of the notification dated 8 October 2014. Aggrieved by what was perceived as differential treatment, a representation was submitted on 14 September 2015 to the Chairman of the Board of Revenue for granting the appellants the benefit of the notification dated 8 October 2014 and placing them in the seniority list against the recruitment year. A final seniority list, computing seniority as on 1 April 2012 was issued on 12 May 2016 in terms of Rule 171-A(2). According to the appellants, their names were not included in the seniority list despite the fact that the recruitment year was 2010-11.