SUSHMA KHANNA AND ANOTHER Vs. STATE AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Impugned in this petition, is order passed by the respondent No.2 bearing No. 270-DF of 2015 dated 08.9.2015 in so far as it pertains to the petitioners.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that the petitioners who joined in J &K Funds Organisation as Assistant Compilers in the year 1982, promoted as Senior Compiler and thereafter vide order No. DF/Adm/274 of 1997 dated 27.11.1997 were promoted as Examiners in the then pay scale of Rs. 2000-3200. The order of promotion of the petitioners came to be implemented and the petitioners were adjusted as Examiners and their salary in the pay scale attached to the post was also released in their favour . The petitioners claim that they were given the promotion to the post of Examiner on the recommendation of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) which had determined their merit, experience, qualification and seniority etc. and, therefore, the same was in consonance with law. The petitioners continued to function as Examiners in its sanctioned pay scale till the year 2015, when respondent No.2 issued order impugned in continuation to its earlier order issued vide No. 39-DF of 2015 dated 16.2.2015. In terms of order No.39-DF of 2015 dated 16.2.2015 which is claimed to have been issued by the respondents purportedly in compliance to the direction issued by this Court on 16.3.2011, while disposing of several writ petitions, lead case being Shagufta Parveen ( SWP No. 4195/1997) , the promotion orders issued in favour of the Compilers both in Jammu Division and Kashmir Division were quashed providing further that the pay fixation against Examiners shall be carried out notionally from the dates shown against each and monetarily from 12.02.2015 i.e. the date of convening of DPC meeting. This was followed by order impugned whereby it was ordered that the pay of all the concerned employees be fixed and wherever required, should be brought down as well, in respect of officials whose date of promotion as Examiners has got postponed . It was further ordered that service benefits which have been given to such Examiners who have retired shall not be taken away and they shall be given monetary benefit of at least ten months so as to make such persons eligible for revised pension. The order impugned further provides that no recovery shall be made from the in-service Examiners whose pay may be re-fixed on account of their modified date of promotion.

(3.) The order impugned has been assailed by the petitioners inter alia on the ground that they were given substantive promotion as Examiners upon the recommendation of the DPC which had properly determined their eligibility, merit and suitability and, therefore, the same could not have been withdrawn or varied to their disadvantage without complying with the principles of natural justice .The order impugned is also assailed on the ground that the same has emanated from the directions issued by this Court in Srinagar while disposing of bunch of petitions vide order dated 16.3.2011 under the lead case titled Shagufta Parveen and Others v. State and others wherein the promotion of Senior Compilers to the post of Examiners made in Kashmir Division was under challenge. It is, thus, urged that the aforesaid judgment which was applicable to the promotion of the Examiners in Kashmir Division could not have been applied to the petitioners whose promotions remained unassailed through out till they retired on superannuation.