HARIHAR DEKA Vs. GAUHATI HIGH COURT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Being aggrieved by his supereession in the matter of promotion to the post of Superintendent and Assistant Registrar, in the service of the Gauhati High Court (hereafter referred to as the High Court), the petitioner seeks to invoke the extra ordinary jurisdiction of this Court for redress.

(2.) I have heard Mr. S. S. Dey, Advocate for the petitioner and Mr. B. C. Das, Sr. Advocate and Standing Counsel of the High Court for the Official Respondents. None appears for the other respondents.

(3.) The factual prologue essential for better appreciation of the rival assertions is cullable from the pleadings. The petitioner's version is that he, a graduate in Arts from the Gauhati University, on being selected was appointed as Lower Division Assistant (hereafter referred to as the LDA) in the establishment of the High Court and joined the post on 28.9.1972, the very date of the appointment order. The respondent No. 4 being similarly appointed, however, joined later on 3.10.1972. Respondents 5, 6 and 7 who were subsequent thereto appointed as LDA were, along with the petitioner and the respondent No. 4, confirmed in the said post by order dated 22.6.1977. The petitioner was thereafter promoted to the post of UD A on 24.2.1982 and further rose to the rank of Superintendent w.e.f. 2.5.1997. The private respondents also in due course made their way up through the ranks, according to the petitioner, by wrongly superceding him. The service profiles of the petitioner and the private respondents are available at a glance in the following table. <FRM>JUDGEMENT_800_GAULTSUPP_2006Html1.htm</FRM>