UNION OF INDIA Vs. BHIM SEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Respondent No.1, Shri Bhim Sen, joined the National Sample Survey Organization (for short ,,NSSO) as Assistant Director in the Data Processing & Survey Design and Research Division on 20.4.1976. This post was outside the Indian Statistical Service (for short ,,ISS). The said private respondent proceeded to the Planning Commission, Delhi as Senior Programmer on 31.12.1981 on being selected by the UPSC while retaining his lien on the post of Assistant Director, NSSO. The private respondent opted for appointment in Grade IV of ISS on 16.2.1983 as the process of encardrement in ISS was in progress. The post was ultimately encardred on 13.9.1983. The said private respondent was appointed as a departmental candidate in Grade IV of ISS on 3.7.1985 in pursuance to a recommendation by the UPSC.

(2.) A judgement came to be delivered by the Supreme Court in Narendra Chadha Vs. Union of India 1986 (2) SCC 157 holding that the ad hoc appointees to Grade IV of ISS be treated as having been appointed to Grade IV on a regular basis in terms of the provisions of Rule 8 (1) (a) (ii) of the ISS Rules, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the said Rules) and be given seniority from the dates of their continuous officiation. In pursuance to this judgement a revised seniority list of Grade IV officers of ISS was prepared on 8.5.1986 and in pursuance thereto on 22.5.1986 promotions from Grade IV to Grade III of ISS were also reviewed and fresh orders passed. The private respondent, thus, came to be promoted w.e.f. 6.1.1981 on the basis of reservation in promotion as the private respondent belonged to the Scheduled Caste category. The private respondent further earned his promotion to the post of Junior Administrative Grade on 30.3.1988.

(3.) The second and a crucial development was that one Shri T.R. Mohanty, a candidate from the General category, filed an OA before the Central Administrative Tribunal (for short ,,CAT), Calcutta Bench, being OA No.336/88 challenging an order dated 24.11.1987 by which eight (8) other SC/ST officers were promoted from Grade IV to Grade III. This application was allowed on 28.11.1988 but the promotion of reserved category officers was not disturbed. It appears that to obviate the consequences, Rule 13 of the said Rules was amended with retrospective effect from 27.11.1972 by a Gazette Notification dated 20.2.1989 so as to make promotions subject to executive instructions. The Union of India also filed a Special Leave Petition against the order dated 28.11.1988 of the CAT. This appeal came to be decided by the Supreme Court in Union of India Vs. T.R. Mohanty 1994 (5) SCC 450. The Supreme Court struck down the retrospective operation of the amended Rule 13. We may note that, in the mean time, the private respondent was given the non-functional selection grade w.e.f. 9.9.1992.