ARIJIT KR ENDOW Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE assailments in successive phases proclaim the petitioner's determined bid for being adjudged as an Additional Chief Engineer, of the Water Resources Department, Government of Assam, eligible for being considered for promotion to the existing post of Chief Engineer thereof in terms of the Assam Engineering (Flood Control Department) Service Rules, 1981 (as amended) (hereafter referred to as the Rules ). Whereas the challenge laid in the first petition is against the notification dated 6. 9. 2008, circulating the provisional gradation list of Additional Chief Engineers of the Department sans his name, the subject matter of impugnment in the latter is the select list dated 20. 7. 2009 of Officers recommended for promotion to the post of Chief Engineer as well as the notification of the even date promoting the respondent No. 3 thereto. The assailments in successive phases proclaim the petitioner's determined bid for being adjudged as an Additional Chief Engineer, of the Water Resources Department, Government of Assam, eligible for being considered for promotion to the existing post of Chief Engineer thereof in terms of the Assam Engineering (Flood Control Department) Service Rules, 1981 (as amended) (hereafter referred to as the Rules ). Whereas the challenge laid in the first petition is against the notification dated 6. 9. 2008, circulating the provisional gradation list of Additional Chief Engineers of the Department sans his name, the subject matter of impugnment in the latter is the select list dated 20. 7. 2009 of Officers recommended for promotion to the post of Chief Engineer as well as the notification of the even date promoting the respondent No. 3 thereto.

(2.) I have heard Mr. S. Shyam, learned Counsel for the petitioner assisted by Mr. P. N. Goswami, Advocate, Mr. A. C. Buragohain, learned Additional Advocate General, Assam, for the official respondents, Mr. N. Dutta, Sr. Advocate for the respondent No. 4 and Mr. D. K. Das, Advocate for the respondent No. 3.

(3.) A selection was held thereafter on 7. 6. 2007 and the petitioner having been placed at Sl. No. 1 of the list of the recommended candidates, he, by notification dated 11. 6. 2007 of the Secretary to the Government of Assam, Water Resources Department, was promoted to the post of Additional Chief Engineer, Mechanical Zone. While he, as the seniormost Additional Chief Engineer of the Department, nursed a legitimate expectation that his name would be included in the gradation list of such officers and that he would be accordingly considered for promotion to the next higher post of Chief Engineer in terms of the Rules, to his shock and dismay, the impugned notification dated 6. 9. 2008 was published circulating the provisional gradation list of the Additional Chief Engineers of the Department in which his name did not figure. According to the petitioner, beyond the cadre of Superintending Engineer, the categorisation of the posts based on discipline i. e. Civil, Mechanical and Electrical was not envisaged in the Rules and that therefore the said provisional gradation list which per se included only the Additional Chief Engineer of the Civil Branch was incongruent therewith.