NAVAL SINGH Vs. BSES RAJDHANI POWER LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition is filed by the petitioner-Mr. Naval Singh impugning the office order dated 23.3.2012 of the respondent No.1/employer/BSES Rajdhani Power Limited whereby the petitioner has been transferred and posted to work as a Telephone Operator in complaint centre of respondent No.1. Petitioner states that petitioner is an Assistant Grade-II employee and since the Telephone Operator is at a lower post of Assistant Grade-III, respondent No.1 cannot ask him to perform the duties of a lower post only on the ground that the petitioner will continue to get the pay of the higher post.

(2.) PETITIONER was appointed by the Delhi Vidyut Board on 31.10.1996 as a Junior Clerk/Telephone Operator. It is not disputed by the respondent No.1 that this post was Assistant Grade-III (AG-III) post. After privatization and unbundling of the DVB, the services of the petitioner were transferred to respondent No.1. Petitioner had in the meanwhile got his promotion from AG-III to AG-II on 25.5.2008. That the post of AG-II is a promotion post from AG-III is again not disputed by the respondent No.1. Therefore, the fact of the matter is petitioner was appointed as AG-III post and he was promoted to AG-II post. At that stage, the impugned order came to be passed asking the petitioner to work as a Telephone Operator, and which post of Telephone Operator is an AG-III post is not disputed by the respondent No.1 because in para 2 of the preliminary submissions of the counter affidavit it is admitted that the post of Telephone Operator is a non- technical post and is equivalent to AG-III post. The only defence of respondent No.1 is that all the three posts of AG-I, AG-II and AG-III are clerical posts and therefore persons appointed in any of these posts can be interchanged so far as their duties are concerned inasmuch as all the posts are clerical posts.

(3.) ON behalf of the petitioner, reliance is rightly placed upon P.K. Chinnasamy Vs. Government of Tamil Nadu and Ors. (1987) 4 SCC 601 which holds that an officer should be given posting and work which commensurate to his status and failure to do so calls for equivalence by the Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.