BIMALENDU CHOUDHURY Vs. B.K. BHATTACHARJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner, who was appointed a Veterinary Asst. Surgeon in the year 1936, by a series of promotions became a Veterinary Inspector in 1947 and an Asst. Professor of Bacteriology in the Bengal Veterinary College in 1961.

(2.) The Petitioner, who was holding a Class I post in the Subordinate Veterinary Services, was appointed substantively to the West Bengal Veterinary Service with effect from October 26, 1954, by the order at annEx. A to the petition and his name was mentioned fourth in that list. The said list did not, however, specify the order of seniority of the five officers who were included in that list, but it was stated that that would be fixed thereafter. In reply to the Petitioner's correspondence for fixing seniority, the Government stated that seniority would be determined by applying certain fixed principles as indicated at annEx. B to the petition, and one of the principles was that it should follow the order of preference indicated by the Public Service Commission. Eventually the order of seniority amongst five officers, including the Petitioner, was fixed by the letter dated February 25, 1963, at annEx. C.

(3.) The Petitioner felt aggrieved by the said fixation inasmuch as he was placed third in the list, below Debendra Das and Manoranjan Sen Gupta, even though Manoranjan had been appointed to the West Bengal Veterinary Service subsequently to the appointment of the Petitioner, i.e., on December 9, 1954. As regards Debendra Das too, the Petitioner's case is that he should be placed below him inasmuch as though their date of appointment to the West Bengal Veterinary Service was the same, the Petitioner had been appointed a Gazetted Officer in the State Services much earlier than Debendra Das (the dates being February 22, 1950 and April 6, 1953). He made a representation to this effect to the Deputy Secretary of the Department on June 27, 1964 (annex. L).