BHAGWAN SINGH Vs. UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are aggrieved by the common order of the Central Administrative Tribunal ("CAT/Tribunal") dated 06.03.2003 in O.A. No. 695/1993 and other connected cases with regard to their complaint of wrongful assignment of seniority and the dates of entry into the grade of UDC and Assistant, and in the subsequent promotional posts.

(2.) THE brief facts are that the petitioners were recruited as LDC on various dates in the 1960s and 1970s. At the time of their entry into service, candidates from another channel of recruitment, i.e. Ex -service men were entitled to compete for the post. Initially, the respondent (UOI) adopted the practice of assigning seniority to the latter category (i.e. Ex -service men appointed) from the date of their clearing the typing test -an essential condition. This was questioned, and ultimately the matter was considered and settled by the Supreme Court in its judgment in Union of India v. O.P. Gupta & Ors. Civil Appeal Nos. 3489 -3491/1996 dated 25.04.2001. The Court once and for all ruled that seniority is to be reckoned from the initial date of entry into service, and not from the date a particular candidate or employee cleared the typing or other tests. While disposing the cases before it, the Supreme Court proceeded to issue the following directions:

(3.) BEFORE the Tribunal, the petitioners contended that they could have been reverted from the higher grade i.e. Assistant to that of UDC only if they were in excess of the reserved candidates quota, and furthermore that they could have at all been replaced only by any other eligible SC/ST candidates. The respondents, on the other hand, contend that the eligibility for promotion from the post of LDC to UDC was 8 years and that the petitioners, or at least some of them, have not fulfilled that condition. They also argued that for some of the promotional vacancies in the grade of Assistant, no eligible candidate was available from amongst the SC/ST candidates.