RATAN GANGOPAHYAY Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The short points involved in this Writ Petition is as to whether under the Calcutta (now Kolkata) Port Trust Employees' Service Regulations, 1987, the Petitioner being a Class-I Officer and being proceeded against, can take the assistance of a retired employee as his Assisting Officer during the course of departmental proceedings?

(2.) The short points that are relevant for purposes of this case are that the Petitioner joined the Calcutta (now Kolkata) Port Trust on 28.3.1984 in the capacity of a Junior Executive Engineer which was subsequently re-designated as an Executive Engineer under the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Kolkata Dock System of the said Port Trust. According to the Petitioner, he is presently working as a Container Terminal Manager w.e.f 20.2.1995 in the grade of a Depuy Chief Mechanical Engineer. According to him, he has been awarded with various Certificates expressing appreciable performance as well as Certificates of commendation and has, to his credit and experience, about 31 years in project work. He was sent for a full-time study programme in the U.K. According to the petitioner, his experience in the aforementioned post of a Container Terminal Manager as Container Terminal "in-charge" in the grade of a Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer has been more than 11 years. He became eligible for the post of Chief Mechanical Engineer but, in order to eliminate him from the zone of consideration, some adverse remarks were communicated to him on 28.9.2005 as after-thought and these related to the years 2002-2003; 2003-2004; and 2004-2005. In fact on 6.2.2004 a charge-sheet was also issued and the Departmental Proceeding was kept pending deliberately so that the Petitioner could not be considered not only because of the pendency of the departmental proceedings but also because of the adverse entries made in his Confidential Reports.

(3.) The Petitioner has stated that the Respondents did not complete the process of selection and kept the matter pending. Challenging the belated adverse entries and the intentional act of stagnating the departmental proceedings as well as also challenging a notification introducing fresh criteria for the post of Chief Mechanical Engineer, the Petitioner filed a Writ Petition being W.P. No. 2043 of 2005. The said Writ Petition was disposed of on 23.11.2005 with a direction, inter alia to conclude the proceedings as early as possible and preferably, within a period of 6 (six) months from the date passing of the said Order. It is evident upon a perusal of the said Order, that the Respondents had made a statement before the Court to the effect that they would consider the case of the Petitioner for recruitment in terms of the Notification. So far as the adverse entries were concerned, the Chairman of the Kolkata Port Trust (hereinafter referred to for the sake of brevity as the KPT) was directed to consider the representation of the petitioner after giving an opportunity of hearing to him. The Order dated 23.11.2005 is annexure P-3, appended to the Writ Petition.