T P SOLANKI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, in this petition, have prayed for mandatory directions to the respondents to treat the petitioners as appointed in the equivalent cadre of Head Clerks carrying the pay scale of Rs.425-800, from the date of appointment as Stastical Assistant and grant all consequential benefits of assigning seniority in the cadre of Head Clerks from the date of their appointment as Statistical Assistants and promotion to the post carrying pay scale of Rs.500-900. The petitioners have alternatively prayed for the directions to the respondents to assign seniority to the petitioners in the cadre of Senior Clerks from the date of their initial appointments and to treat the petitioners on the higher post carrying the pay scale of Rs.425-800, on the basis of said seniority and on the basis of the date of promotion of the juniors to the petitioners appointed in the equivalent cadre in the office of the respondent No.2 and to grant all consequential benefits of fixation of pay, arrears of salary, deemed date of promotion in the cadre of Rs.425-800 etc.

(2.) The brief facts giving rise to the present petition are that the petitioners were appointed on 24th August, 1979, on the post of Statistical Assistants, created by the department in the pay scale of Rs.380-600 and they were continuously working as such, till they were promoted as Social Welfare Inspectors in the pay scale of Rs.425-800 on 8th December, 1986. The main grievance ventilated by the petitioners was that their names were not included in the seniority list in all these years and they were not given same benefits of promotion and higher scale, as were available to the similarly situated Statistical Assistants in the office of the Director of Bureau of Economics and Statistics and also to the persons appointed simultaneously with the petitioners but in the lower cadre, who were promoted from the cadre of Investigator drawing pay scale of Rs.260-400 to the post of Senior Clerk drawing pay scale of Rs.330-560. The petitioners were, therefore, denied the equal opportunity in the course of public employment, violating constitutional guarantee contained in Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. It was further submitted that because of the indifferent attitude of the respondents, the petitioners have suffered recurring loss right from the date of their appointment in the year 1979. The petitioners further submitted that with a view to get the avenue of promotion, they started making representations to include their names in the combined seniority list of Statistical Assistants maintained by the Bureau and/or to include their names in the equivalent post in the office of the respondent No.2. Similarly, representations were also made by the investigators, who were simultaneously appointed with the petitioners. A communication was sent to the petitioners on 30th April, 1981 stating that necessary proposal was made to the State Government to include their names in the cadre of Gujarat Statistical Service and on receiving the decision of the State Government necessary orders would be passed. However, the matter was not pursued and the respondent No.1 did not resolve the controversy for unduly long time till November 1986. The petitioners accordingly continued to serve in the isolated cadre of Statistical Assistants carrying the pay scale of Rs.380-600 in the office of the second respondent, without any benefit of promotion. The petitioners, thereafter, made a further representation on 30th July, 1985 and in pursuance of the said representation, the petitioners were informed by letters in July, 1986 and October 1986 that the proposal dated 20th July, 1981 to assign them appropriate seniority and consequent promotion was pending with the State Government and the correspondence in this behalf was going on and as soon as the orders were issued they would be informed accordingly. The petitioners further submitted that the recruitment rules for the posts of Head Clerks, Social Welfare Inspectors, etc., came to be enacted by notification dated 6th November, 1986, wherein it was provided that the appointment to the post of Head Clerk and its equivalent post like Social Welfare Inspector shall be made by promotion of persons of proved merit and efficiency from amongst the persons working in the cadre of Statistical Assistant, Senior Clerks, etc. and on that basis of the said rule, the petitioners came to be promoted provisionally by order dated 8th December, 1986, as Social Welfare Inspectors carrying the pay scale of Rs.425-800. This order was passed by the Director Social Welfare Department, Gujarat State, Ahmedabad on 8-12-1986. However, the issue of assigning seniority to the petitioners in the equivalent cadre of Senior Clerks and/or Head Clerk from the date of their appointment had remained unresolved and no orders were passed by the respondent No.2.

(3.) The petitioners further submitted that though the petitioners were promoted to the cadre of Social Welfare Inspectors carrying the pay scale of Rs.425-800 vide order dated 8-12-1986, the respondent No.1 did not give the seniority to the petitioners. On the contrary, the seniority list was issued on 13th February, 1987 showing the position of Head Clerks and/or the posts equivalent thereto as on 1st January, 1987, along with a circular stating that the persons like the petitioners, who were promoted pursuant to the recruitment rules dated 6th November, 1986 were assigned the seniority from the date of their appointments and the petitioners were shown at the bottom of the said list at Sr.Nos. 151 and 152. The persons recruited after the petitioners, either as Head Clerks or as Social Welfare Inspectors by way of direct recruitment were shown senior to the petitioners. It was, however, stated that the petitioners were regularly appointed to the post of Statistical Assistants carrying the pay scale of Rs.380-560, which was retrospectively revised as recommended by the 2nd Pay Commission with effect from 1st January, 1973 to Rs.425-700, which was also prescribed for Head Clerks in the office of the respondent No.2. The petitioners were, therefore, required to be treated on the equivalent posts of Head Clerks and were entitled to reckon their seniority in that cadre and they are also entitled to promotion to the post carrying pay scale of Rs.500-900. Alternatively, it was submitted that they were to be treated as Senior Clerks carrying the pay scale of Rs.380-560. However, the said treatment was not given by the respondents. As a result of this, the petitioners did not get seniority in the equivalent cadre right from 1979 till 1986 and consequently did not get any service benefits like selection grade, promotion, etc. Number of juniors, who were only matriculates, who came to be recruited after the petitioners, were included in the list of promotion as Head Clerks and the petitioners were shown below them in the seniority list dated 13th February, 1987. The petitioners's services were not reckoned in any cadre during the period from 1979 to 1986. The petitioners, therefore, claimed the deemed date of promotion in the equivalent cadre of pay scale of Rs.425-700 after reckoning their seniority from the date of their appointment.