S K SONI Vs. UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner completed his technical graduation from Punjab University, Chandigarh in the year 1968. He then commenced his service career by working as Apprentice Engineer with Haryana Public Works Department at Ambala where he worked for two and a half months. He then prepared for taking military engineering service and appeared in competitive examination. On 22.11.1968, he was selected and appointed as Superintendent (Building and Roads) Grade-I at Amritsar Cantonment where he served for nearly five years and nine months. For better future prospectives, he joined Border Roads Organization (in short 'BRO'), the respondents in this petition, as an Assistant Executive Engineer through an open selection by Union Public Service Commission (in short 'UPSC'). Having joined the service on 19.8.1974, the petitioner served in different areas and put in very hard work. He was posted to high altitudes where he served with sincerity and to the satisfaction of all concerned. On 29.11.1990, the petitioner was promoted as Executive Engineer and thereafter to the rank of Superintending Engineer on 31.7.1997. Next promotion of the petitioner is to the rank of Chief Engineer and the Superintending Engineers with three years' service are entitled to be considered and promoted to the post of Chief Engineer as per the recruitment rules. The promotion is through selection which is effected as per the personnel policy approved by the Central Government from time to time. The respondents circulated an inter se seniority list of the Superintending Engineers on 1.1.2002. As per that seniority list, Mr. Shiv Dayal Bajaj is shown at Sr. No. 1, Mr. K.K. Arvindakshan is shown at Sr. No. 2, Sh. Lakshmi Narayan Tiku is shown at Sr. No. 3, the petitioner is shown at Sr. No. 4, Sh. V.K. Venugopalan is shown at Sr. No. 5, Mr. Binod Behari Lal is shown at Sr. No. 6 and Dr. Virender Kumar Yadav is shown at Sr. No. 7. The respondents forwarded the names of all the seven persons to the Departmental Promotion Committee (in short 'DPC') which recommended the names of Sh. V.K. Venugopalan, Sh. B.B. Lal and Shri V.K. Yadav. However, the names of other three persons and the petitioner were not recommended by the Committee. The petitioner was surprised to learn about his non-recommendation by the DPC as he had never earned any adverse report in his service career. The petitioner, thus, is aggrieved from the action of the respondents in not promoting the petitioner to the rank of Chief Engineer and super-session of the petitioner while other juniors to him had been promoted to the rank of Chief Engineer.

(2.) The case of the respondents, as pleaded in the counter affidavit, is that the promotion to the post of Chief Engineer is by a process of selection wherein merit plays the dominant role. Therefore, the concept of super-session is totally alien and inapplicable to such promotions. A DPC proposal for filling up three vacancies, later amended to two vacancies due to decadrement of post of 'Adviser NEC' against vacancy year 2002-03, was submitted to the UPSC through Secretary, Border Roads Development Board. The DPC met on 28.5.2002. The name of the petitioner along with other eligible persons was considered by the DPC. The DPC did not recommend the name of the petitioner as he was not found fit for promotion by the Committee in terms of the recruitment rules. In terms of the 'Procedure to be observed by DPCs - Revised guidelines' issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions dated 8.2.2002, the Government had prescribed a higher selectivity in promotion to the revised pay scale of Rs. 12000-16500 and above. Post of Chief Engineer carries the pay scale of Rs. 18400-22400. The benchmark for promotion to the said post is, thus, 'very good'. The petitioner was not found fit based on the benchmark 'very good' in the last five years' ACRs and, therefore, was considered unfit for promotion.

(3.) Indisputably, the recruitment rules for promotion to the post of Chief Engineer are as under:- <FRM>JUDGEMENT_1406_ILRDLH15_2006Html1.htm</FRM>