BHUBANESWAR SARMA Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner before this Court is presently serving as a Supervisory Assistant in the Deputy Commissioner Establishment, Nalbari, Assam. The grievance of the petitioner is that although he applied for selection and appointment to the post of Revenue Sheristadar and although he posses all necessary qualifications and satisfies all the norms and requirements he was not selected rather the private respondent No. 4 was selected and appointed. Being aggrieved, the present writ petition has been filed.

(2.) The learned counsel for the writ petitioner submits that by Advertisement dtd. 5/7/2019, the post of Revenue Sheristadar in the amalgamated establishment of Deputy Commissioner, Nalbari was advertised. In the said advertisement, qualification for the post has been prescribed is 15 years of service in any of the Deputy Commissioner Establishment, Assam and has experience in difference branches in General and Revenue Branch in particular. In response to the said advertisement, the petitioner having the requisite qualifications forwarded his candidature for due consideration. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the services of the petitioner and the private respondent No. 4 are governed under the Assam Ministerial District Establishment Service Rules, 1967. The said service comprises of several cadres including Supervisory Assistant and Revenue Sheristadar. The Rules prescribed that each of the categories of posts prescribed therein shall formed an independent cadre. The posts of Sheristadar was amended by Gazette Notification dtd. 25/8/1999 and was notified as Revenue Sheristadar. The qualification of the post has been prescribed as 15 years of service in any Deputy Commissioner Establishments and must have experience of working under different branches in the Department including Revenue Branch in particular. The post is a selection post and the selection is to be conducted by a selection Board comprising of four (4) members. The Secretary of the General Administrative Department is the Chairman, Commissioner of the concerned Division and Deputy Commissioner of the concerned District are Members and the Deputy Secretary to the Government of Assam, General Administration (B) Department is the Secretary of the said Committee. The selection Board/Committee will examine the Annual Confidential Report and other relevant service particulars of the eligible candidates for assessment of merit. After due assessment, a list of names in the order of preference will be prepared and the same shall be forwarded to the Appointing Authorities. The Government of Assam by Notification dtd. 1/7/1999 has already informed that selection to the post of Revenue Sheristadar shall be strictly on merit.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that though the petitioner possessed all the necessary qualification and had more merit than the private respondent yet the private respondent was selected as the candidate for the post of Revenue Sheristadar by the selection committee over the writ petitioner. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that pursuant to the orders passed by the selection committee, he had applied under RTI and in the reply received, it is seen from the Minutes that although the Commissioner, Lower Assam Division is a Member of the committee but only one Sec. Officer to the Commissioner was present in the meeting which is in contravention with Rule 7 of the Assam Ministerial District Establishment (Amendment) Rules, 1999. The learned counsel for the petitioner further submits that although the selection to the post of Revenue Sheristadar was to be conducted strictly on merit, yet the selection committee did not assess the inter se merit of the candidates and instead merely recommended the private respondent to the post of Revenue Sheristadar. It is submitted that for the relevant period, the petitioner had been awarded 'Very Good' for all the relevant years under consideration in his ACR as compared to private respondent who was not awarded 'Very Good' all throughout. It is submitted that in so far as the present writ petitioner is concerned he had been graded 'Very Good' continuously for five years whereas the private respondent has been graded 'Very Good' for two years and 'Good' for three years. It is further submitted that there is a circular of the Government of Assam whereby different gradings were required to be allotted different marks as under: