DAMODAR PRASAD Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS application has been filed for quashing that portion of the gradation list dated 9.11.1999 (Annexure -15), whereby the petitioner has been shown as junior to respondent No. 7 and placed at Serial No. 2 whereas respondent No. 7 has been placed at Serial No. 1. Shorn of unnecessary details, facts giving rise to the present writ application are that the Bihar State Housing Board, hereinafter referred to as the Board, published advertisement in the daily Newspaper, inviting applications from the eligible candidates for appointment to the post of Steno -typist. Petitioner as well as respondent No. 7 Dinesh Sharma besides other eligible candidates offered their candidatures. According to the petitioner, the Board considered the candidature of all the eligible candidates and prepared a merit list, in which petitioner has been placed at Serial No. 3, whereas respondent No. 7 at Serial No. 5. Accordingly, by letter as contained in memo dated 16th of April, 1974 (Annexure -1), petitioner and respondent No. 7 were appointed as Steno -typist and posted in the office of the Executive Engineer, Public Health Engineering Department, Patna and Executive Engineer, Patna Division No. 2, Patna respectively. The name of the petitioner finds place at Serial No. 3 and that of respondent No. 7 at Serial No. 5 of the letter of appointment. In pursuance of the aforesaid letter of appointment, petitioner joined as Steno -typist on 17.4.1974; whereas respondent No. 7 joined as such on 22.4.1974. later on, by order as contained in memo dated 4th of July, 1977 (Annexure -1 -A), services of the petitioner as also respondent No. 7 were regularised from the date of their joining.

(2.) RESPONDENT No. 7, later on, posted as Steno -typist in the office of the Executive Engineer, Muzaffarpur Division, Muzaffarpur and he made request for his transfer to Patna for treatment of his daughter suffering from Polio. The respondent Board considered his request and by order as contained in memo dated 15.10.1977 (Annexure -3) transferred him in the office of the Superintending Engineer, Housing Board, Patna Circle, Patna. Ultimately, by letter dated 6.1.1978 (Annexure -5), respondent No. 7 was posted at the Headquarters of the Board.

(3.) IT is relevant here to state that the respondent Board treating the post of Steno -typist working in its Mufassil offices and its Headquarter to be belonging to different cadres, promoted one Sachida Nand Sinha to the post of Senior Personal Assistant. Dinesh Sharma respondent No. 7 herein aggrieved by the same filed C.W.J.C. No. 6763 of 1990 (Dinesh Sharma vs. The State of Bihar & Ors.) before this Court in which the petitioner herein was arrayed as respondent No. 5 whereas said Sachida Nand Sinha as respondent No. 4. In the said writ application, petitioner had prayed that he be declared senior to respondent Nos. 4 to 7 and to quash the order by which Sachida Nand Sinha was promoted to the post of Senior Personal Assistant. The plea of respondent No. 7 herein, who was the writ petitioner in the aforesaid writ application, was that there cannot be any "discrimination between the Steno -typist working in the Headquarter of the Board and the Steno -typist working in the regional offices of the Board" and "there is only one cadre of Steno -typist in the Board". The Board and the contesting respondents tried to defend the action by contending that the Steno -typists posted in the mufassil offices of the Board and Headquarter, constitute different cadre. This Court considered the plea put forth by the party in the said case and held that Steno -typist working in the mufassil offices and Headquarter of the Board constitute one cadre and accordingly, directed the Board to determine the inter se seniority of the Steno -typist keeping in view the observation made in the said judgment. While doing so, this Court observed as follows: