VALENCIA SYIEMLIEH Vs. STATE OF MEGHALAYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a Grade-III employee and is working as a Receptionist in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Secretariat. The grievance in the petition is that a change in the applicable Rules pertaining to promotion from what was provided under the original Rules of 2011 has resulted in serious prejudice to the petitioner and robbed the petitioner of the monetary benefits that the petitioner would have gained upon the promotion that she could have obtained in terms of the Rules of 2011.

(2.) It is the petitioner's case that at the time that she joined the service, there were no Rules in place providing for promotion or indicating which of the posts would be filled up by direct recruitment and which others only by promotion or by a combination of promotion and direct recruitment. The petitioner says that upon the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Secretariat (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2011 coming into effect, the cadre of Lower Division Assistant (LDA) in the Assembly Secretariat was to be filled up to the extent of 20 per cent by promotion and the remaining 80 per cent by direct recruitment. As to the provision for promotion, the said Rules of 2011 provided as follows:

(3.) The Rules of 2011 came to be completely replaced by the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Secretariat (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2015 published on or about May 4, 2016.