C T BALACHANDRAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE above writ petition has been filed by Shunters and Goods Driver in the Southern Railway, challenging the order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal is O.A. No. 880 of 2003, dated 16.10.2004.

(2.) THE application approached the Tribunal to set aside the order passed by the 2nd respondent herein dated 20.2.2003, by which the 2nd respondent sustained the provisional seniority list dated 18.10.2000 insofar as refusing to revise the seniority of the applicants in the order of Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) ranking/merit list dated 19.2.1997 and direct the respondents to revise the seniority of the applicants as per the order of the seniority in RRB list dated 19.2.1997 and to promote the applicants as Shunters and Goods Drivers on par with their immediate juniors in the RRB seniority list with all arrears and consequential benefits.

(3.) THE grievance of the applicants is that the provisional seniority list was not prepared in accordance with Rule 303(a) of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual, which contemplates that the ranking shall be based on a final examination to be conducted at the close of the training and that the seniority list ought to have been prepared before issuing posting orders. THE applicants would further submit that the final examination was not conducted and they were not informed that the marks obtained in all the tests during the period of training would be the basis for fixation of their seniority. THE applicants would also rely upon the observation made by the Tribunal in an earlier Original Application filed by them in O.A. Nos. 1014 of 2001 and 1015 of 2001, where a direction was issued by the Tribunal to consider the representation of the applicants, further observing that there has been infraction of Rule 303(a). On the above grounds, the applicants had approached the Tribunal with the aforesaid relief.