L.GOKULCHANDRA SINGH Vs. STATE OF MANIPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Shri N. Jotendro, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioner; Shri A. Mohendro, learned Advocate appearing for the private respondent; Shri H. Debendra, learned Government Advocate appearing for the State respondents and Shri R.K. Deepak, learned Advocate appearing for Respondent No. 2 (Chief Engineer, PHED).

(2.) The validity and correctness of the order dated 30/6/2018 issued by the Under Secretary (PHED), Government of Manipur, in respect of the petitioner, is under challenge in this writ petition.

(3.) The facts and circumstances as narrated in the writ petition, are that the petitioner is a Master Degree Holder in Civil Engineering from IIT Roorkee who joined his service as Section Officer Grade-I in the year, 1985 in the Public Health Engineering Department (hereinafter referred to as "the PHED"). Although he became eligible for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer on 9.12.1998 as per the relevant Recruitment Rules, no promotion was given to the petitioner as the respondents failed to take appropriate steps for filling up vacancies in time. On the contrary, in order to extract the work of the Assistant Engineer from the petitioner, the State Government issued an order dated 28.5.1998 transferring and posting the petitioner to function as in-charge Assistant Engineer and in that capacity, the petitioner continued till when he was promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer on regular basis vide order dated 29.12.2015 issued by the Under Secretary (PHED), Government of Manipur and while the petitioner was serving as in-charge Assistant Engineer, the petitioner was awarded many appreciation letters in recognition of his excellent work performance. Thereafter, the petitioner was allowed to look after the work of the Executive Engineer, Bishnupur, PHE Division vide order dated 14.9.2016 issued by the Under Secretary (PHED), Government of Manipur. In the meantime, the petitioner along with six others filed a writ petition being WP(C) No.122 of 2016 praying for grant of seniority with retrospective effect.