ASHOK KUMAR KHARE Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE matters raise the common question of grant or otherwise of the benefit of continuous officiation to the employees of the State Government in a situation where their cases were considered at the Range level and given officiating promotion to the next higher post, without consideration at the level of the Director General of Police (i.e. the State level), and also without taking into account the cases of all eligible candidates within the zone of consideration, accompanied with the situation that the continuous officiation has gone on for a fairly long length of time.

(2.) WE shall first of all take up L.P.A. No. 1542 of 1995 (arising out of C.W.J.C. No. 5937 of 1995), and L.P.A. No. 1543 of 1995 (arising out of CWJC No. 6549 of 1995). The petitioners of C.W.J.C. No. 6549 of 1995, and C.W.J.C. No. 5937 of 1995, have preferred the two appeals under the provisions of Clause 10 of the Letters Patent of the High Court of Judicature at Patna and are directed against the common judgment dated 19.10.1995, whereby both the writ petitions were dismissed.

(3.) IT is evident on a perusal of the materials on record that the petitioner was given the officiating promotion as Inspector with effect from 10.7.1981 (Annexure-1), under the order of the S.P., Special Branch on the basis of the recommendations of the Range Selection Board. This was obviously in the teeth of the relevant provisions of the Manual indicated hereinabove. A promotion which has to be considered after taking into account all the eligible candidates within the zone of consideration in a centralised manner for the whole of the State of Bihar, the petitioner was given the officiating promotion on the Range level alone, i.e. local level rather than on the basis of the State level. This surely cannot enure to the benefit of the petitioner and he is disentitled to claim the benefit of continuous officiation with effect from 10.7.1981. He has rightly been assigned the seniority with effect from 25.1.1986, when he was given the promotion on a substantive basis, in a regular manner, and after following the prescribed procedure.