UMESH KUMAR SINHA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Initially, the petitioner in this writ application had sought for a direction to the respondents to accept his joining as Managing Directing of the Bihar State Pharmaceutical & Chemical Development Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as 'the ( orporaticn') and to consider his case for confirmation to the post of Managing Director on the basis of the recommendation made by the Board of Directors of tte Corporation in their 31st meeting held en 11th March, 1987. A Division Bench of this Court, while admitting the writ application on 25-1-1989 ordered that the joining report of the petitioner which bad been forwarded by the Boardd to the State Government should be deemed to have been accepted by the Board on that date. The said order was made subject to the result of this application. Later, a petition for amendment of the writ application was filed challenging the Government Order dated 1st December, 1989 photo copy where of has been annexed as Annexure-IS to the said petition) wherein it was mentioned that on the expiry of five years frcro 8-9-1984 the petitioner's service would stand termination under Article 92 read with Article 129 of the Articles of Association of the Corporation. This Court by order dated 13-12-1989 allowed the prayer for amendment of the writ application but declined to grant stay of operation of the aforesaid order, as contained in in Annexure-19 to the petition.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that in April, 1984, an advertisement was published in the National Newspapers by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Government of Bihar, for recruitment of Managing Director of the Corporation, which is wholly owned by the State Government. From Article 4 (b) of the Articles of Association, referred to above, it will be clear that the Corporation is a Government public Company, 100% share of which is owned by the State Government. Under the aforesaid advertisement the qualification required for the pest was a degree in Chemical Engineering with minimum ten years' experience in the line. According to him, he is a first class degree-holder in Chemical Engineeing with 23 years' experience in Chemical Industry (Central Government Undertaking), namely, Engineers (India) Limited and fulfilled all the criteria and applied for the same. According to the petitioner, the interview was conducted by the High Power Committee in which the petitioner also appeared and finally on his selection was appointed as Managing Director of the Corporation on 4-9-1984 with two years' probation clause for confirmation to the post. The Industries Department issued the appointment letter to this effect on 8-9-1984, a photo copy of which has been annexed annexure-1 to the writ petition. The petitioner joined as Managing Director of the Corporation on 12-10-1984. The petitioner completed bis probationary on 11-10-1986 and thereafter on 11-3-1987 the Board of Directo rs of the Corporation in view of his high commendable performance as Managing Director strongly recommended to the State Government for his permanent absorption on the post of Managing Director from the date he completed the probation period as per the terms of his appointment order. A relevant extract copy of the said resolution of the Board of Directors has been annexed as Annexure-3 to the writ petition.

(3.) It has been stated that in the meantime, the lien of the patitioner with previous employer i.e. Engineers (India) Limited expired on 28-2-1987 . Before any decision could be taken on the aforesaid recommendation of the Board of Directors, the petitioner was given another assignment as Expert/Consultant (Chemicals) to Pariyojana Sangathan, a wing under the administrative control of the State of Bihar, under the Department of Project, Planning and Institution Finance by order dated 9-10-1987. a photo copy of which is Annexure-5 to the writ petition. According to him, though the said order was illegal, yet he being a disciplined officer acted on the same and joined his new assignment on 12-10-1987. This appointment was for a period of one year, on expiry of which he returned back to the Corporation and submitted his joining report on 12-10-1988. In the meantime, Mr. T. Nand Kumar, the then Director, Industries was appointed with an additional charge of the office of the Managing Director of the Corporation on 9-10-1987 and later, the newly added respondent No. 6 was appinted as Managing Director of the Corporation while he was also posted as Director, Industries. When the joining of the petitioner of his return to the Corporation was not being accepted, he filed the present writ application for the reliefs, as already mentioned above.