NAGENDU BHATTACHARYA Vs. BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These Letters Patent Appeals arise out of a common order passed by a learned single Judge of this Court whereby a batch of petitions filed by the appellants challenging the validity of Rule 5 of the Recruitment Rules framed by the Respondent BSNL have been dismissed and the notifications issued by the latter proposing to hold a limited internal competitive examination (LICE), upheld.

(2.) The appellants were employees of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). With the formation of the respondent BSNL in the year 2000, they were placed on deputation with BSNL, pursuant to a broad understanding regarding protection of the terms and conditions of their service, as employees of the BSNL. One of the conditions to which the parties had agreed, was incorporated at serial No. 11 of the agreement arrived at between the office bearers of the employees and the officers of the DoT and read as under : Channels of promotion would be maintained for those employees who get absorbed in BSNL. The above agreement was followed by an office memorandum issued on 7th August, 2001 by BSNL stipulating the following :

(3.) In July 2003, BSNL framed what are known as Assistants' Recruitment Rules, 2003 governing recruitment to the post of Assistants and other categories of employees. The said Rules, inter alia, provided for filling up 50% of the vacancies in the cadre on the basis of a limited internal competitive examination (LICE) with the remaining 50% to be filled up by direct recruitment. UDCs with five years service were eligible to appear in the LICE.