ANAND AGRICULTUREAL UNIVERSITY Vs. KIRITBHAI H BHATT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ADMIT. Mr. P.R. Nanavati waives notice for respondent. The present appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 29th June, 2010 passed by the learned Single Judge in Special Civil Application No. 1201 of 1999, whereby the learned Single Judge has ordered to grant all financial benefits available to the petitioner as Assistant Librarian and the differences of the emoluments and other financial benefits receivable by the petitioner, treating him as regularly appointed Assistant Librarian.

(2.) THE short facts are that the respondent-original petitioner was appointed as Junior Clerk on 1.10.1963 in the Institute of Agriculture, Anand. In 1972, he was transferred to Gujarat Agricultural University as Junior Clerk. On 23.5.1974, he was promoted as Publication Assistant and on 17.4.1976, he was promoted as Superintendent. On 22.6.1976, the respondent-original petitioner was posted as Assistant Librarian. In 1984, the respondent-original petitioner passed Bachelor Degree in Library and Information Science. On 17.11.1986, without following any regular selection process, the respondent-original petitioner was appointed as Assistant Librarian on ad-hoc basis for a period of six months. On 19.5.1988, his appointment on ad-hoc basis was cancelled and he was transferred to his original post. On 16.8.1989, Board of the University rejected the claim of the respondent-original petitioner for regularization of his services as Assistant Librarian and it was resolved to fill up the post of Assistant Librarian through public advertisement. On 1.1.1991, the respondent-original petitioner obtained Master's Degree in Library Science and Information Science, which was requisite qualification for the post of Assistant Librarian. On 12.3.1997, the respondent-original petitioner was promoted to the post of Assistant Administrative Officer and on 15.2.1999, the respondent filed petition claiming his appointment to the post of Assistant Librarian as regular appointment and prayed for all consequential benefits including difference of salary etc. On 31.8.2002, the respondent attained the age of superannuation and retired as Assistant Administrative Officer. THEreafter, the petition came up for hearing before the learned Single Judge on 29.6.2010 and the learned Single Judge found that all benefits must be made available to the petitioner as that of Assistant Librarian and directed accordingly for the reasons recorded in the judgment. Under the circumstances, the present appeal before us.

(3.) IT is hardly required to be stated that if any employee is selected by undergoing regular selection process and thereafter if he is given appointment on temporary basis and thereafter if he continues, such may enure benefit as that of regular appointment, salary etc to such person. But in a case where an employee has not undergone regular selection process and is only holding the post by way of transfer or otherwise, that too, when such person is not holding requisite educational qualification for the post in question, in our view, benefit cannot enure to such person as that of the post which he is holding. IT further appears that when the respondent-original petitioner was posted for the first time in the year 1976, he was holding the post of Superintendent and posted as Assistant Librarian. At that time, he was not even holding the qualification of Bachelor's degree of Library Science and Information Science and acquired it for the first time in the year 1984. Further, after he was posted on ad-hoc basis on 19.5.1988, his appointment on ad-hoc basis came to be cancelled and the Board of the University had resolved for filling up the post of Assistant Librarian by regular selection process. Further, it is only in the year 1991 that the petitioner acquired the qualifying degree for the post in question. Under these circumstances, mere factum of holding the post cannot be considered as investing any additional right in favour of the respondent-original petitioner as that of Assistant Librarian. Even at the time when he retired, his post was that of the Assistant Administrative Officer though he was working as Assistant Librarian. In our view, if regular selection process is given a go bye and the factum of holding the post is read to confer benefit of a regular salary in favour of a person who was not holding qualification at the relevant point of time when he was posted, such would not only result into investing right in favour of the person who is legally not entitled to it but would frustrate the basic settled norms to be observed in public employment and the observance of regular selection process and the conferment of the benefit to the persons so entitled. We are more inclined to take this view because of two peculiar circumstances in the present case, one is that the original petitioner did not undergo regular selection process and another is that when he was posted for the first time, he did not hold the requisite qualification for the post in question. Under the circumstances, we find that the petition was lacking merit and was deserving dismissal. Hence, we find that the judgment and the order passed by the learned Single Judge cannot be sustained.