KARAM LOKENDRO SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE two petitioners in this application pray for quashing the order dated 28.12.2008 in Annexure A/10 wherein private respondents No. 6 and 10 were appointed to the post of M.H.S. Grade -II (Senior Specialist in Gynaecology) in pursuance of the recommendation of DPC held on 21.12.2006 conducted by Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) as well as the order dated 12.7.2012 in which all the private respondents were appointed to MHS Grade -I (Consultant) by promotion on recommendation of DPC held on 5.7.2012 with concurrence of MPSC.

(2.) SINCE it is the second round of litigation at the instance of the petitioner No. 1, it is necessary to look into the background of the case. When the petitioner No. 1 filed the earlier writ application in 2006, he was working in the cadre of MHS Grade -III. The petitioner No. 2 was also working in the same grade. According to the petitioners, they were eligible for promotion to the next higher grade i.e. M.H.S. Grade -II. An advertisement was issued by MPSC for filling up five posts of MHS -Grade -II (Senior Specialist) i.e. two posts in Gynaecology, two posts in Paediatrics and one post in Anaesthesiology. Challenging the said advertisement, petitioner No. 1 and some other similarly placed doctors filed writ the applications before Gauhati High Court on the ground that cadre strength of MHS Grade -II had been increased to 64 from 48 with corresponding increase of Specialist posts to 33 from 20. The Rules provide for induction of Specialists in MHS Grade -III, Grade -II and Grade -I by lateral entry in the ratio of 25% by way of direct recruitment. However, it is not provided in the Rule as to how and under what circumstances, this 25% specialist posts are to be identified speciality -wise. The further case of the petitioner No. 1 in the earlier writ application was that taking advantage of the lacunae, State Government without verifying and processing the identification of requirements and speciality concerned issued the advertisement inviting applications from eligible candidates for filling up of the aforesaid posts in MHS Grade -II. All the writ applications were disposed of in a common judgment of the Gauhati High Court and the Court having not found any merit in the writ applications, dismissed the same.

(3.) COUNTERS have been filed by the State respondents as well as by private respondents. The stand of the State respondents is that for implementation of NRHM, a decision was taken to recruit more number of doctors in the above three disciplines as it was not possible on the part of the State to manage the hospitals as well as implementation of NRHM scheme with few number of doctors in the above three disciplines. It is also the stand of the state respondents that the officers borne in MHS Grade -I, II and III, not only look after their own routine work but also work for implementation of the NRHM Scheme. Because of the above decision taken by the Govt., neither regular work in the hospitals is affected nor is there any difficulty in implementation of the NRHM scheme.