VIJAYALAKSHMI .K. Vs. CHAIRMAN CUM MANAGING DIRECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are the applicants in O.A. No. 180/00742/17 on the files of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench. This petition has been filed challenging the order of the Tribunal declining interim relief sought for by the petitioners.

(2.) The petitioners claim that the they are Assistant Office Superintendents and Junior Engineers in the service of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited [BSNL in short]. They have filed this Original Petition, as is discernible from the pleadings on record, challenging Annexure A2 to the extent it notifies the number of vacancies for general category, in respect of vacancies for the year 2015 - 16 as 110, as against the alleged requirement of 133, as being arbitrary and discriminatory. They also allege that against the vacancies of the year 2013-16, a total number of 33 persons belonging to the SC community had been wrongly charged against the general quota and they, therefore, in this Original Petition, challenge Annexure A2 to the extent to which it notifies vacancies in general category as 110 and also seek to quash Annexures A5, A6, A13, A14 series to the extent they allegedly charge the SC community against general category vacancies. Certain other directions are also sought for in the Original Application.

(3.) Along with the Original application, the petitioners sought for a direction that they be sent for training for the post of Junior Telecom Inspectors provisionally subject to the outcome of the Original Application. The Tribunal, considered the interim prayer but found that since the training imparted to the various candidates, including the petitioners, would not be a criteria for seniority, it was not necessary that the interim relief be granted since the petitioners' seniority would depend upon the marks they would obtain in such training to be conducted in future. The Tribunal specifically noticed that the seniority of the petitioners would not be lost merely because they have not been sent for training now, pending original application and that it will be their marks, which they will secure after attending the training course, that would be relevant for their seniority. O.P.(CAT) No. 353 of 2017