P.T USHA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As the petitioner in both these OP(CAT)s is the same, and the issue involved in both these OP(CAT)s is the same and arises from a common order dtd. 8/6/2016 of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench, they are taken up together for consideration and disposed by this common judgment.

(2.) The petitioner, who was also the applicant in both the O.As that were disposed by the common order referred above was recruited to the cadre of Postal Assistant pursuant to the order dtd. 30/10/1980 issued by the Director General (IP&T) that set up a reserved training pool for Postal Assistant/Sorting Assistant in the Post and Telegraph Department. While the petitioner had been provisionally appointed as Postal Assistant and had also been sent for training for a period of 2 ½ months from 6/11/1982, and thereafter joined services as a Postal Assistant with effect from 21/1/1983, she was absorbed as a Temporary Postal Assistant only with effect from 31/1/1990. Although there was some ambiguity in the initial rounds of litigation as regards whether the absorption of the petitioner as Temporary Postal Assistant was with effect from 2/2/1990 or 21/1/1983, the said ambiguity does : not now survive in view of the categorical pronouncement by the Administrative Tribunal in the earlier rounds of litigation, as also the acceptance by the petitioner of the notional seniority list in the cadre of Postal Assistant wherein the date of absorption is clearly indicated as to 2/2/1990.

(3.) The issue projected in the O.As before the Central Administrative Tribunal was essentially two fold. On the one hand, the petitioner was seeking promotion to the post of Lower Selection Grade Accountant based on the fact that she had completed 10 years of service as a Postal Assistant after her absorption as such, and further had also qualified in the PO and RMS Accountants Examinations prescribed in the recruitment rules for promotion as Lower Selection Grade Accountant. It would appear that while the said promotion was not actually granted to the petitioner, she also applied for appearing at the Limited Departmental Competitive Examinations for Group B postal service posts. The latter examination was one that could be attempted only by persons who had already been promoted as Lower Selection Grade Accountants and subject to their completing 5 years of service in that post. When the petitioner was not permitted to appear at the said examination, she approached the Central Administrative Tribunal through O.A.No. 357 of 2010, and the Tribunal, by an interim order, permitted her to provisionally appear in the test subject to the disposal of the said O.A.