V P KAMALAMMA Vs. UNIION OF INDIA, REP BY SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPT OF PERSONNEL AND TRAINING

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prayer in the writ petition is to issue a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, calling for the records of the Central Administrative Tribunal in O.A. No. 255 of 2002 dated 23.1.2003, and to quash the same and consequently to direct respondents 1 and 2 to promote the petitioner as Joint Registrar with effect from 27.2.2002 with all consequential benefits.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is as follows:

(3.) A Counter has been filed by the Registrar of Central Administrative Tribunal, Madras Bench, on behalf of respondents 1, 2 and 5, in which it has been stated that the issue involved in this case is regarding the year and number of vacancies and zone of consideration for promotion to the post of Joint Registrar for which the DPC met on 12.9.2001. There were three sanctioned posts of Joint Registrars. They were abolished subsequently with effect from April, 1995. But, once again they were revived in February, 1996. Thereafter, the DPC met and Diwakar Kukreti G.C. Sharma and Bhattacharjee were promoted as Joint Registrars in August, 1996. Bhattacharjee did not accept the appointment and hence his promotion was cancelled in 1997. Thus one post of Joint Registrar fell vacant since 1997. In February 2000, G.C. Sharma, Joint Registrar, was promoted as Registrar, and R.N. Panda and Ramachandran, Deputy Registrars, were appointed as Joint Registrars on ad hoc basis. No final seniority list in the cadre of Deputy Registrar had been issued. The petitioner, respondents 3 and 4 were appointed as Deputy Registrars on regular basis by Order dated 25.7.2001. DPC met in 2001 to consider promotions to the posts of Joint Registrar, and eligible persons were considered in the order of merit; since Ramamurthy, Panda and Ramachandran were appointed as Registrars their names were not considered for the post of Joint Registrar. In September, 2001, DPC met to fill up the posts of Joint Registrars. The Deputy Registrars were not considered for the post of Joint Registrars on regular basis as they had become eligible for the post of Bench Registrar and they were considered for promotion as Bench Registrar by DPC held on 9.8.2001. Therefore, Rajaram, Kamalamma, Pradeep, Stephen Swamidoss, Govind Ballabh, Bawa and Ajmani (Deputy Registrars) were considered for promotion as Joint Registrars, and DPC appointed Bawa, and Pradeep as Joint Registrars. The seniority list in the post of Deputy Registrar was not finalised. In the absence of final seniority list, DPC considered the names in the Order of merit communicated by the Department of Personnel and Training in the Order dated 25.7.2001 and appointed Panda and Ramachandran as Joint Registrars on ad hoc basis. In May, 2000, no DPC was convened for promotion to the cadre of Joint Registrar since the promotion orders in the feeder cadre of Deputy Registrar have not been issued till July, 2001. DPC held on 12.9.2001 considered and recommended Bawa, Pradeep and Rajaram to be appointed as Joint Registrars on the basis of merit. Since there were only two vacancies, the first two candidates were appointed as Joint Registrars. DPC met on 12.9.2001 to consider appointment to the posts of Joint Registrar, therefore the Communication dated 8.2.2002 issued by the Government of India is not applicable in the present case. Hence, the writ petition is to be dismissed.