A P ANGADI Vs. MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner joined the service of respondent in the year 1961 as Overseer. After intermediate promotions he was promoted as Shift Engineer in the year 1971 and later on to the post of Assistant Power Station Superintendent on 13-2-1978. The petitioner was granted regular promotion to the post of Deputy Superintendent on 13-6-1980, that later on came to be redesignated as Executive Engineer (Generation ).

(2.) BY means of this writ petition, the petitioner challenges denial of higher pay scale benefits of Senior Executive Engineer (Generation) with effect from 13-6-1986. The claim is based on General Order No. 74 issued by the respondent. The petitioners case is that by General Order No. 74 issued on 30th April, 1974, it was provided that if an employee works on the same post for six years or as per the later amendment 10 years or more without getting any promotion for the reason that there is no promotion channel open or the promotional post is not available, such employee is entitled to the grant of the scale of promotional post without being actually promoted to the post.

(3.) THE respondent-M. S. E. B. is contesting petitioners claim and the nub of its defence is that under General Order No. 74, the higher pay scale benefits of promotional post cannot be claimed by an employee as a matter of right but such employee must be found suitable for promotion to the promotional post. As regards petitioner, it is submitted by the respondent that his case was considered for granting benefit of General Order No. 74 by the Selection Committee in the years 1991 and 1992 but he was not found suitable on the basis of the criteria laid down by the Selection Committee. According to the respondent, the competent Selection Committee while considering the cases for grant of benefits of General Order No. 74 adopted the criteria that such employee ought to have overall granding of "very good" for two years and "good" for three years. The Selection Committee found that petitioner failed to obtain requisite rating.