R BASAVESWARUDU Vs. SECRETARY UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the Writ Petitions can be disposed of by a common Order as common questions of law arise in these Writ Petitions.

(2.) The Writ Petitions are filed challenging the Order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad in O.A.No. 1362 of 2002, dated 17-2-2004 and other similar O.As. Petitioners are the unofficial respondents in the O.As. filed before the Central Administrative Tribunal. The applicants before the Central Administrative Tribunal were working as Data Entry Operators Grade-B. They challenged the Recruitment Rules issued in notification dated 29-11-2002 in so far as they relate to the conditions imposed in clause (a) and Note-1 of clause (b) of Column No. 12 of Group 'C' of Recruitment Rules, 2002 for eligibility condition for promotion to the cadre of the Inspector of Customs and Central Excise, providing opportunities to the cadres that were existing prior to the restructure cadre and the restructure process was already effected with effect from 19-7-2001 and for a direction that they should be deemed to have been merged into the cadre of Senior Tax Assistant in the scale of 5000-8000 in pursuance of the letter dated 19-7-2001 and consequently further direction to the respondents to consider the cases of the applicants for promotion to the cadre of Inspector of Customs and Central Excise by way of 100 per cent promotion under one time relaxation scheme on par with those Assistants Data Entry Operators Grade-C, Data Entry Operators Grade-B and U.D.C. (Special Pay), who were re-designated as Senior Tax Assistants underthe restructured cadre. They also sought the relief of setting aside the intimation letter dated 5-11-2002 for conducting the physical tests, interviews forthe cadres otherthan Data Entry Operators Grade-B other than the restructured cadre.

(3.) The facts leading to the filing of the O.As. before the tribunal are as follows: In the department of Central Excise and Customs various cadre posts were created under relevant statutory rules framed under proviso to Article 309 of Constitution of India. The said Rules are called Central Excise and Land Customs Department Group-C Posts Recruitment Rules, 1979 (for brevity "1979 Rules"). The said Rules contained the method of recruitment to the posts in various cadres including the post of Inspectors. The promotion to the post of Inspector under 1979 Rules was by selection from amongst: (i) Upper Division Clerks/Steno Grade-Ill with five years service. (ii) Upper Division Clerks with 13 years of total service. (iii) Stenographers (Grade-Ill) with two years service. (iv) Stenographers (Grade II) or Stenographers (Grade III) with 12 years service as Stenographer, Upper Division Clerks and Lower Division Clerk."