BASHIR AHMAD BHAT Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Intra Court Appeal is directed against the Judgment dtd. 18/2/2008, for short impugned Judgment, passed by the writ Court in a writ petition, SWP No. 120/2005, whereby the writ petition of the petitioner- appellant has been dismissed, seeking setting aside of the same on the grounds taken in the memo of appeal.

(2.) In order to appreciate the controversy as set out in the instant appeal as also in the writ petition, it is desirable that the facts that led to filing of the instant appeal is taken note of in brief, thus: Brief facts

(3.) Appellant is a member of the Kashmir Administrative Service. Prior to his induction into the Kashmir Administrative Service for short KAS, the appellant was serving as the member of J&K Employment Gazetted Service. In terms of the J&K Administrative Service Rules, 1979, the induction into the service had to be considered from amongst the eligible officers of the feeding services. Accordingly, the Selection Committee, for the purpose, was constituted, which considered the merit of all eligible officers for their induction and based on such consideration certain inductions were made to the exclusion of appellant-petitioner. The induction so made by the Selection Committee became the subject matter of litigation as some writ petitions were filed by the aggrieved, including the petitioner-appellant. These writ petitions were considered and decided by the writ Court by a common judgment dtd. 18/9/2002. The relevant portion of the said judgment is reproduced, for facility of reference, herein, thus: "Petitioners and respondents on consideration by the Selection Committee have been found equal in merit except Mr. Bukhari. The respondents 4 to 6 could be selected, only being senior as per Seniority List of 1986. All the promotes who were inducted have retired. Therefore, keeping in view that the respondents have not shown any reason for not adopting the method of preparation of Seniority List of 1985 for the year 1986 also, the petitioners, therefore, shall be entitled to the benefit of their notional induction to KAS service to the extent of three posts from the date of induction of respondents 4 to 6 and regular induction onwards from the date of their retirement as the petitioners have made out the grade of equal merit and could not be inducted only because the selectees were shown senior according to the seniority list of 1986. Petitioners shall also be entitled to other benefits except monetary benefits. Mr. M. A. Bukhari being meritorious to all as pleaded by the respondent General Administration Department, shall be shown inducted above all. Considering the facts of these cases and of the aforesaid writ petitions, wherein those petitioners have been held entitled to the benefit, I feel that petitioners being similarly situated are also entitled to the relief prayed for, for the same reasons. The petitioners are thus found entitled to the relief of equalization of pay scale from the date of issuance of the Govt. Order No. 1285-Gad of 1983 dtd. 20/8/1983 and further entitled to the benefit of seniority for purposes of their promotion and induction."