D B SHAH Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners have moved this Court for appropriate writes orders and directions to quash and set aside the order of their reversion from the posts of Under Secretary to Section Officer. The said order is dated 14/07/1977 Annexure C to the petition. The grievance of the petitioners is that though respondent No. 2 was promoted along with the petitioners in March 977 and was ranked much below the petitioners in the unconditional select list of Section Officers prepared for promotion to the posts of Under Secretary and which select list is based on the respective seniority of the Section Officers he was retained as Under Secretary while the petitioners have been reverted. This action of the Government is in submission of the petitioners discriminatory and therefore violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. The petitioners have therefore prayed that the impugned order of reversion be quashed and set aside so far as it affects the petitioners and it be declared that the petitioners have continued to hold the posts of Under Secretary all along.

(2.) . After this petition was filed it is an admitted position that the petitioners have been promoted again as Under Secretary sometime in the month of October 1977

(3.) . The petition is resisted by the State Government broadly on the ground that the petitioners were not entitled to be promoted as a matter of right on the ground of seniority alone and unless they are found to be fit for such promotion they are not entitled to promotion as prescribed in the Gujarat Civil Services Classification and Recruitment (General) Rules 1967 (hereinafter referred to as the Classification Rules). The State Government has further stated in the reply affidavit of Shri H. D. Jokhaker Under Secretary to the Government of Gujarat in General Administration Department that a committee called Departmental Promotion Committee was appointed for assessing the merits of the officers concerned and for assessment of the merits the confidential reports of the concerned officers were looked into and a provisional select list of Section Officers fit to be promoted to the posts of Under Secretary was prepared. In the meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee held on 31/03/1977 the cases of 15 Section Officers were considered and on Comparative assessment of the relevant merits a select list was prepared and the grading in the said list was determinative of the seniority in the cadre of Under Secretary. Accordingly respondent No. 2 was ranked at Sr. No. 3 in the said Select List while the petitioners were ranked at Sr. Nos. 7 8 9 and 10 respectively and therefore while deciding as to who should be retained on the post of Under Secretary as a result of abolition of four other posts and having regard to the seniority of respondent No. 2 according to his gradation in the select list prepared by the Departmental Promotion Committee as aforesaid the petitioners were reverted.