BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED Vs. SUDHIR KUMAR JHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned counsel for the respondents.

(2.) The reliefs sought for by the petitioners in para-1 of the writ petition are as under:

(3.) The facts of the case in brief are that the respondents were initially engaged as Daily Rated Mazdoors and were granted temporary status. While working under the temporary status, they were granted status of Regular Mazdoor vide order dated 18.07.2002. While working under the regular status they received chargesheet dated 04.02.2011 and were proceeded against departmentally. The proceedings against them concluded with order dated 05.03.2016 imposing penalty of lower stage in the existing time scale of pay by two stages for six months. During pendency of the disciplinary proceedings, a notification for Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (for short 'LDCE') for the post of Telephone Mechanic was notified but the respondents were not allowed to appear in examination going to be held on 28.09.2014 as they were not fulfilling the mandatory condition as stated in para 6(4) of the notification dated 01.08.2014. Feeling aggrieved by the decision of the petitioners, the respondents approached the Central Administrative Tribunal, Patna Bench, Patna (for short 'Tribunal') vide O.A/050/00684/2014. In the said case, the Tribunal vide order datd 25.09.2014 directed the petitioners to allow the respondents to appear in LDCE provisionally and keep their result in sealed cover. The respondents appeared in the examination but they did not qualify. Hence, vide order dated 05.12.2017, the original application was dismissed by the Tribunal as the same had become infructuous. Subsequently, notification dated 03.06.2017 was issued for conducting LDCE examination 2017 and the date of examination was fixed on 20.08.2017 in order to fill up the vacancies for the post of Telecom Technician up to 31.3.2017. As per the provision in the recruitment rules of Telecom Technician circulated vide BSNL Corporate office letter dated 250-3/2012-PERS-III dated 19 th September, 2012, the eligible employees were directed to submit their application form latest by 19.07.2017. The respondents submitted their application form in time, but the petitioners did not issue admit card to the respondents.