HEMRAJ SINGH CHAUHAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The judgment dated 15th December 2006 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal ('Tribunal'), Principal Bench, New Delhi in OA No. 1097 of 2006 filed by the petitioners, along with certain others, is challenged by them in this writ petition. Petitioner No. 1 is a Special Secretary in the Trade Tax Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh and Petitioner No. 2 is a Controller, Legal Metrology, Government of Uttar Pradesh. The Background: The relevant Rules and Regulations

(2.) The petitioners who are members of the State Civil Services ('SCS') of Uttar Pradesh completed eight years of service on 23rd July 1985 and 4th June 1986 respectively. An officer of the SCS is entitled to be considered for appointment to the Indian Administrative Service ('IAS') by promotion after completing 8 years of service in terms of the third proviso to Regulation 5 (3) of the IAS (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations 1955 ('Promotion Regulations'). Under Regulation 5 (3) of the Promotion Regulations, members of the SCS who have attained 54 years of age on the 1st day of January for which the Select List is prepared shall not be considered for promotion to the IAS. Under the Regulation 5 (1) of the Promotion Regulations, a Committee has to be constituted which shall 'ordinarily meet every year' and 'prepare a list of such members of the State Civil Service as are held by them to be suitable for promotion to the Service.' The number of members of the SCS to be included in this list 'shall be determined by the Central Government in consultation with the State Government concerned and shall not exceed the number of substantive vacancies as on the first day of January of the year in which the meeting is held, in the posts available for them under Rule 9 of the Recruitment Rules.' The second proviso to Regulation 5 (1) of the Promotion Regulations is important and it reads as under:

(3.) Rule 2 (g) (ii) of the IAS (Recruitment) Rules 1954 (Recruitment Rules) defines the expression 'State Civil Service' to mean any service approved for the purpose of the said Rules by the central government. The expression 'Service' is defined under Rule 2 (e) to mean the Indian Administrative Service. Rule 4 (1) of the Recruitment Rules indicates that there are three methods of recruitment to the IAS. These are (a) by competitive examination (b) by promotion of a substantive member of a SCS and (c) by selection, in special cases from among persons, who hold in a substantive capacity gazetted posts in connection with the affairs of a State and who are not members of a SCS. Therefore, the recruitment to the IAS can, apart from the competitive examination, be by way of promotion or selection.