DEV RAJ Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner seeks for direction against the respondents to consider him for the post of Assistant Geologist in accordance with rules w.e.f. 20.01.1988 from the date when he became qualified/eligible for the post. The petitioner had been appointed as a Sectional Officer on 20.01.1983, now re -designated as Junior Agriculture Engineer. The petitioner would contend that at the time of appointment, as per the provisions and rules, the said post was a feeder cadre for promotion to the post as Assistant Geologist. The appointment as per Rule 8 to the promotion post was by way of promotion to the extent of 662/3% from members of subordinate services with 5 years experience and the remaining by way of direct recruitment. The rules provided that a person brought on transfer would be counted in the quota of direct recruitment. Rule 9(ii) provides that officers of the Administrative, Statistical and Engineering categories shall be eligible for promotion within the respective categories of service. The petitioner would claim that in the year 1981, an amendment was carried to Rule 8.1 of Punjab Agriculture Service Class -II Rules that created a geology section in which the petitioner was making a claim for promotion. The petitioner would contend that when the respondents were giving promotion to the post of Assistant Geologist in the year 1985, there were 7 posts on which promotions could have been made. Annexure P2 revealed that 5 persons belonging to the general category and 2 persons for the reserved category could have been promoted. There was however no eligible reserved category candidate available for promotion and consequently, one Madan Gopal Sharma was granted ad hoc promotion from Irrigation Department and Paras Ram Kalia was offered promotion post from Social Welfare Department.

(2.) THE petitioner himself had been appointed in Geology Section only in the year 1983 and being equivalent to the post as Junior Agriculture Engineer, the petitioner would contend that Sectional Officer could have been considered and promoted as Assistant Geologist in which wing, the petitioner was also working since the date of appointment. Admittedly, on the date when an order of promotion was issued under Annexure P2, the petitioner had not completed 5 years of experience required under the rules, but completed it in the year 1988. The petitioner would contend that he had made several representations to the respondents for consideration of appointment to the vacant post in place of Madan Gopal Sharma, who had been appointed from Irrigation Department on ad hoc basis and yet another person Paras Ram Kalia had been appointed subject to clearance from Social Welfare Department. Since the permanent vacancy had not been filled up with permanent appointments, the contention is that the petitioner on completion of 5 years was entitled to be considered over the claims of the 5th respondent and Paras Ram Kalia, the 6th respondent.

(3.) THE State has filed reply through the Deputy Director Agriculture. Referring to Rule 8 read with Rule 9 of the Punjab Agriculture Services Class -II Rules, the promotion to the extent of 662/3% was only from the subordinate services which in the Geological Section included Technical Assistant, who possessed academic and technical qualifications relating to the subject of Geology/Hydrology. A Sectional Officer re -designated as Junior Agriculture Engineer would not be taken as from subordinate services for the purpose of promotion and the Government had clarified the same by means of letter issued on 27.11.1989 (Annexure P5). A Sectional Officer could be considered for promotion only as Assistant Engineer and not as Assistant Geologist. When the petitioner had made a request for consideration of promotion to the post of Assistant Geologist, there were 7 posts. Some Sectional Officers were appointed as Assistant Geologists on ad hoc basis since there were not requisite number of eligible persons from the subordinate services. It was, therefore, decided to fill up posts on ad hoc basis from amongst Sectional Officers having 15 years of experience. The department's effort to fill up posts directly of persons having geological qualification was also turned down by the government and, therefore, the department had to resort to make stop gap arrangement. Even the persons, who had been promoted on ad hoc basis, were retained as Assistant Geologists only till their own turn for promotion as Assistant Engineers came in their own line of promotion. As a matter of fact, one R.C. Mittal and yet another person, who were from the subordinate services and who could in future be eligible for Assistant Geologist posts had challenged even this ad hoc officiation by filing a writ petition in CWP No. 15753 of 1989. At the time of filing of written statement, it appears the case was still pending.