J M TRIVEDI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, ten Deputy Executive Engineers have called into question fixation of their seniority in the final seniority lists dated 8.5.1984 and 10.1.1985 of the respondent No.2 Board. After filing of the petition in August 1989, it came to be admitted in January 1991 fixing the date of final hearing on 18.4.1991. Thereafter, the petition appears to have been listed for final hearing in the year 1999 and, after being once dismissed for default in the year 2000, came to be finally argued now. By now, all the petitioners have been promoted to the higher posts and three of them have already retired while one has occupied the highest promotional post of Chief Engineer.

(2.) After being recruited on lower posts, the petitioners were, between December 1977 and December 1978, e8, expressly posted on the promotional post of Deputy Engineer until further orders and appointed to officiate as Deputy Engineer (Civil) on "purely temporary, provisional and ad-hoc basis without prejudice to the rights of their seniors, if any, and subject to regularisation afterwards when the seniority issue is finalised".

(3.) Challenging the seniority lists made as above, the petitioners have prayed for directions to refix their seniority on the basis of the date of their appointment on the post of Deputy Engineer and to confer upon them the benefits of deemed date of promotion to the higher post from the date their immediate juniors were promoted along with the consequential benefits. The petition was resisted by the respondents which include the direct recruitees benefitted by the seniority lists. They opposed, on the grounds of delay and laches, and with equal force, on the ground that the final seniority lists were proper and legal despite apparent anomaly of the directly recruited engineers pushing down the seniors in the seniority lists. By an affidavit-in-reply filed on behalf of the respondent No.2, it is submitted that the seniority list is in accordance with the rules and the petitioners initial appointment on the promotional post of Deputy Engineer should be considered to be fortuitous and the employees would become members of the service only from the date of their appointment in accordance with the Rules. It is further averred by another affidavit of the Deputy Secretary that the same recruitment rules have been uniformly applied in respect of 30 vacancies that occurred in 1977, 28 vacancies that occurred in the year 1978 and 5 vacancies that occurred in the year 1979. By a belated affidavit executed and filed in April 2002, it is stated on behalf of the State Government that the seniority was fixed on the basis of the Rota system in the ratio of 3:1 and the petitioners had not raised any objection against the provisional or final seniority list made as on 18.5.1984. The first objection by some of the petitioners were raised by a letter dated 28.6.1988. All objections were considered by the State Government as reflected in the minutes dated 17.1.1989. It is further averred that the process of direct recruitments was started by the State Government in the year 1977 through the G.P.S.C. to fill up 15 posts of Deputy Engineers. Thereafter, the process of examinations and interviews was completed by the end of the year 1979 and appointments by direct recruitment were made since April 1980. In the meantime, the Government promoted the petitioners on purely temporary, provisional and ad-hoc basis until further orders to see that the work of the department did not suffer on account of non-availability of direct recruitees.