PUNEET AGARWAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner herein was selected in Indian Administrative Service in Civil Services Examination (CSE, 1997). He belongs to the General Category and secured fifth position in the combined merit list of the said examination. He was allocated to Manipur ? Tripura joint cadre of the IAS. According to him, this allotment of Maniput-Tripura cadre was contrary to the provisions of ,,principles of cadre allocation as enumerated in D.O. letter dated 31.5.1985 and on the right application of the aforesaid provisions, he should have been allocated Maharashtra cadre. His representation for change of cadre was turned down vide letter dated 11.8.1998.

(2.) CHALLENGING the aforesaid decision of the respondent, the petitioner approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as ,,the Tribunal) by filing OA No.1080/1999 under Section 19 of the Central Administrative Act. His contention, however, has not found favour with the Tribunal, as a result whereof, the Tribunal has dismissed the said OA vide impugned orders dated 16.5.2000.

(3.) FOR the 1998 batch, the vacancy list of various cadres giving ,,insider and ,,outsider vacancies of General, OBC and SC/ST categories was circulated by the Department of Personnel and Training as enclosure to their letter dated 27.5.1998 to the Chairman, UPSC with copy of IAS Academy, Mussoorie. There were 21 States/Joint Cadres which were arranged in alphabetical order in the roster and divided in four groups given below and are repeated in the cycle of 21, i.e., 1-21, 22- 42 and so on: Group I - Andhra Pradesh, Assam-Meghalaya, Bihar and Gujarat. Group II - Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh. Group III - Manipur-Tripura, Nagaland, Orrisa, Punjab, Rajasthan and Sikkim. Group IV - Tamilnadu, Union Territory, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.