JAHAR DEBBARMA Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY means of this writ petition, fundamentally the constitutionality of the Tripura Power Engineering Service (4th Amendment) Rules, 2002 and the Tripura Power Engineering Service (5th Amendment) Rules, 2007, so far it is related to entitlement of the scale of pay of Rs. 7,450 -13,000 after eight years of service in Grade -V(B) of the Tripura Power Engineering Service is concerned, has been challenged. The petitioners No. 1 -3, 5 -9, 11 and 12 have been allowed their movement to the next grade, being Grade -V(A) of the Tripura Power Engineering Service borne in the scale of pay of Rs. 7,450 -13,000 on completion of eight years of continuous and satisfactory service in the Grade -V(B), the entry grade for the said service. On the day of filing of the writ petition, the petitioners No. 4, 10 and 13 were however, not moved to the said grade and the scale of pay.

(2.) THE grievance of the petitioners emanates from the repeal of the provisions which provided that on completion of four years continuous and satisfactory service as the Junior Engineer, Grade -II, the benefit of movement to the higher grade, Junior Engineer Grade -I with higher scale would be automatically available to those engineers. It is to be noted that the Diploma -holder engineers used to be recruited initially as the Junior Engineer Grade -II (now Grade -V(B) of the Tripura Power Engineering Service) and the Degree -holder engineers used to be recruited initially as the Junior Engineer Grade -I (now Grade -V(A) of the Tripura Power Engineering Service). The petitioners have referred the employment advertisement No. 7/99, dated 28.12.1999, issued by the Tripura Public Service Commission for appointment of the Junior Engineers (Grade -V of the Tripura Power Engineering Service). In clause (4) of the said advertisement dated 28.12.1999, it has been provided that a Diploma holder Engineer will be initially recruited as Junior Engineer, Grade -II and after completion of 4 years Service, he/she will be designated as Junior Engineer Grade -I.

(3.) SINCE the petitioners have confined their challenge only to the provisions related to their movement to the next higher pay scale equivalent to the scale of pay of the Grade -V(A) by way of promotion i.e. Rs. 7,450 -13,000, for purpose of reference, the relevant parts of Rule 30 of the Tripura Power Engineering Service (5th Amendment) Rules, 2007 are extracted hereunder: