SHASHI SHEKHAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AS has been captioned in the Original Application filed by the applicants, they were initially appointed in the Directorate of Enforcement as Assistant Enforcement Officer and subsequently got promotion as Enforcement Officer in the grade pay Rs. 4800/ - (PB -2) after rendering 18 to 20 years of service in the feeder grade. According to the applicants, the appointment to various posts in the Directorate is made by way of direct recruitment as well as also on deputation from other departments, viz Police Service, Customs & Excise Department, etc. Vide Office Memo dated 25.5.2011, the Directorate of Enforcement proposed to fill up 33 posts of Assistant Director (presently Assistant Director -Grade II) in the pay band of Rs. 9300 -34800/ - with grade pay of Rs. 4800/ - on deputation basis at Delhi, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Srinagar, Lucknow, Kolkata, Patna, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Cochin, Guwahati and Chennai. Again vide OM dated 14.6.2012, they proposed to fill up more posts of Assistant Director on deputation basis. The following categories of officials having sufficient experience in the collection and processing of intelligence as well as in investigation work were considered eligible for appointment to the posts in question on deputation basis: -

(2.) MR . P.P. Malhotra, learned Additional Solicitor General referred to the Recruitment Rules for the posts of Chief Enforcement Officer [AD(E) and DD (Enforcement)] and submitted that the respondents have committed no irregularity in filling up the posts in said categories/grades in accordance with the recruitment rules. Referring to the status of the working strength of the Directorate of Enforcement, he submitted that as many as 135 posts of Deputy Director are still lying vacant in the Department and just to meet the expectation of the applicants, the functioning of the department cannot be paralyzed. He submitted with aplomb that the amendment in the recruitment rules may take its own time and the available vacancies will have to be filled up in accordance with the recruitment rules in vogue for the present. The status of the working strength of Directorate of Enforcement as produced by the learned Additional Solicitor General reads as under: -

(3.) AS far as the first question is concerned, it can be seen from para 5.1(iv) of the OM dated 3.10.1989 (ibid), the qualification and experience of the officers to be selected for transfer on deputation/transfer need to be comparable to those prescribed for direct recruitment to the post where direct recruitment has also been prescribed as one of the methods of appointment in the recruitment rules and where specific qualification for transfer on deputation/transfer has not been prescribed in RRs. In the present case, it is not so. Both in the RRs for the post of Chief Enforcement Officer and Deputy Director (Enforcement), the provisions for appointment by way of transfer on deputation have been specifically prescribed. In the Directorate of Enforcement (Class I and Class II Posts) Recruitment (Amendment) Rules, 1975, it is specifically provided that the Income Tax Officer, Class II, (ii) Superintendents of Central Excise Class II and Appraisers (Class II) of Customs Houses and (iii) Deputy Superintendents of Police or Equivalent from Central/State Government are eligible for appointment as Chief Enforcement Officer by transfer on deputation against 25% of total posts. For easy reference, recruitment rules placed by the applicant on record as Annexure A -5 to OA are extracted hereinbelow: -