ALL INDIA SCHEDULED CASTES Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant filed the writ petition giving rise to this writ appeal for declaring the Circular dated 10.10.2018 as invalid with a further direction to the Life Insurance Corporation of India to provide relaxation/concession in promotion on the post of Administrative Officer to the cadre of the Divisional Manager in the Life Insurance Corporation of India. The appellant/petitioner is a welfare association claiming itself to be of the LIC employees and represented by its General Secretary.

(2.) The allegations were that the impugned Circular did not contemplate the application of communal roster in the matter of public employment and was not in tune with the constitutional mandate as prescribed by the Apex Court time and again, and consequently the relief prayed for should be granted.

(3.) It appears that during the pendency of the writ petition, Life Insurance Corporation of India came up with another Circular, whereby they put the earlier Circular dated 10.10.2018 in abeyance. Taking notice of the subsequent circular the writ petition was treated to have become infructuous and accordingly dismissed on 09.07.2019. Questioning the same, the appellant has now come up in this appeal contending that the relief prayed for is a mandamus, in the nature of declaration to implement the law, which has not become infructuous merely because the Corporation had suspended its circular putting it simply in abeyance. It is urged that it was a temporary step taken by the Corporation which did not eclipse the right to get relaxation and concession claimed by the appellant/petitioner.