V.K. SEHGAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who is a Graduate, joined the Indian Army during the first external emergency on January 9, 1964, as a Combatant Clerk. He served during the Pakistan aggression over India in 1965 and was awarded a Raksha Medal and Samar Sewa star in recognition of his services during the Indo-Pak war. He was released from the Army on September 24, 1960, on extreme compassionate grounds. He served the Army for five years eight months and sixteen days. It may be observed that the date of birth of the petitioner is June 18, 1945. Certain posts of Upper Division Clerk were advertised by the Income-tax Department which were to be filled in by conducting examination through Staff Selection Committee. The recruitment and service conditions of the Upper Division Clerk are governed by the Rules known as Income Tax Department Non-gazetted Ministerial Post Recruitment Rules, 1969. The petitioner was fulfilling all the requisite qualifications under the statutory rules for being inducted as Upper Division Clerk excepting age. The petitioner was twenty-four and a half years old whereas the age limit prescribed under the rules was 23 years. It was for this reason that the Regional Employment Exchange, Patiala did not sponsor the name of the petitioner for the post. However, there is power of relaxation of the age under the rules for persons belonging to Scheduled caste/Scheduled tribe and other category of persons, i.e. Ex-Servicemen etc. The petitioner's age was relaxed and he was allowed to appear in the examination against the Ex- servicemen quota. After being selected, he joined the service in the Income- tax Department as Upper Division Clerk on April 18, 1970.

(2.) As per the petitioner, he was entitled to the benefit of Military Service rendered by him in the Army during the period January 9, 1964, to September 24, 1969, according to the instructions issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Defence, in consultation with the Home Ministry dated December 4, 1959. The said instructions read as under :

(3.) It is the petitioner's case that the respondent-Department failed to discharge its duties in granting the benefit of Military service to him under the aforesaid instructions which led him to make several representations including detailed representation dated March 8, 1988, which has been appended as Annexure P-4 to this writ petition. On April 4, 1988, a communication was addressed from the office of Commissioner of Income-tax, Patiala to the petitioner (who was then working at Ludhiana) in which it was mentioned that in reference to the petitioner's representation dated March 8, 1988, he should furnish documents/information as asked for in the letter dated April 4, 1988. A copy of that letter has been appended as Annexure P-5. It is further the case of the petitioner that the respondent-Department sat over the matter. After waiting for a reasonable time, the petitioner approached the Central Administrative Tribunal, Chandigarh, by filing O.A. No. 253/Pb. of 1989, seeking a direction that the respondent-Department be directed to grant the benefit of Military service to the petitioner with all consequential benefits. It may be observed here that the petitioner had been promoted as a Head Clerk on March 17, 1987, in normal course and after qualifying the departmental examination, he was further promoted as an Inspector in the year 1991. The aforesaid original application came up for hearing before a Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal on January 11, 1995, and in view of the written-statement filed on behalf of the respondent that the representation of the petitioner was still pending, the O.A. was disposed of by passing the following order (relevant extract) :-