NIRMAL CHANDRA SINHA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been filed assailing the order dated 21-7-1998 rendered by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad Bench in O.A. No.312 of 1998.

(2.) The dispute revolves around the appointment to the post of General Manager of Railways. Few facts may be necessary to be stated: Petitioner belongs to Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) and joined Railways on 2-5-1958 as Special Class Apprentice. His Date of Increment on the Time Scale (DITS) is 2-5-1962. When his turn came for consideration for promotion as General Manager, he was working as Chief Mechanical Engineer of South Eastern Railway. He was promoted to the post of General Manager, Central Railway on 29-11-1996 and was transferred to South Central Railway on 27-10-1997.

(3.) Petitioner's grievance is that he ought to have been promoted much earlier to 29-11-1996, that all the unofficial respondents herein were juniors to him and they went up in ladder while he was stagnated in the post lower to the General Manager and that, had he been promoted as General Manager on due date (according to him at least immediately after 13-3-1996) he would have been promoted as Member, Railway Board and then as its Chairman and that deprivation of such higher post to him carrying higher emoluments and challenging services, had resulted in negation of the equality of opportunity in public service, which the Indian Constitution guarantees under Article 16(1).