SUDHINDRA NATH NEEKRA Vs. STATE OF MP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed against the order dated 20-23 rd June, 2014 passed by the Superintending Engineer, Administration (respondent No.3), thereby rejecting the representation filed by the petitioner for including his name in the cadre of Degree-holder Sub-Engineers.

(2.) The necessary facts for the disposal of the present petition, in short are that the petitioner was holding Diploma in Civil Engineering and was initially appointed as Sub- Engineer on 01/11/1991 vide order dated 30th October, 1991. It is alleged that in the year 1991 itself, the petitioner had also qualified Section-A Exam from the Institution of Civil Engineers (India), which is a Decree Course. Thereafter, in the year 2009, the petitioner started making efforts for qualifying in Part B-Examination and, therefore, the permission was sought from the Institution of Civil Engineers (India) and accordingly, the petitioner was permitted by Institution of Civil Engineers (India) for participating in Part- B Exam. The petitioner also sought permission from the Departmental Authorities vide a letter dated 13/06/2009 Annexure P6 and a recommendation was made to the Superintending Engineer by the Executive Engineer to grant permission to the petitioner to appear in Part-B Exam on the condition that the discharge of the official duties shall not get hampered and the recommendation was forwarded to the Superintending Engineer.

(3.) It is submitted by the counsel for the petitioner that under the hope and belief that the Superintending Engineer would grant permission to appear in Part-B Exam, the petitioner appeared in Part-B Exam as a correspondence course and he was declared passed. Thereafter, the petitioner filed an application for including his name in the cadre/gradation list of Degree-holder of Sub-Engineers. However, the said application has been rejected by the impugned order on the ground that the petitioner had not obtained departmental permission for appearing in Part-B Exam of AMICE(I) by the correspondence course. It is submitted by the counsel for the petitioner that when the petitioner filed an application dated 13/06/2009 to the Executive Engineer, seeking permission to appear in Part-B Exam,then a recommendation was forwarded by the Executive Engineer to the Superintending Engineer. Therefore, it shall be presumed that the Department had granted permission to the petitioner to appear in Part-B Exam of AMICE (I) by correspondence course.