SAVITA Vs. RAJASTHAN STATE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As per Schedule-I attached to the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board Employees Service Rules and Regulations 1993 (for short 'Rules of 1993"), for getting promotion to the post of Assistant Environmental Engineer from the post of Junior Environmental Engineer, Five years service for Degree holders and Ten years service for Diploma holders, is necessary.

(2.) Now, the issue before this court is "whether a candidate not having Five years experience on the post of Junior Environmental Engineer is entitled to get promotion on the post of Assistant Environmental Engineer merely because his/her appointment was delayed by the recruitment authority?"

(3.) Background of this case is that pursuant to advertisement no. 3/2010, the petitioner submitted online application for participation in the process of selection on the post of Junior Environmental Engineer, but due to technical error her application was accepted for the post of Junior Scientific Officer. When her request for correction was not accepted, she approached this court by way of filing S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 12391/2010 and on 9/9/2010, while passing an interim order, she was allowed to participate in written examination for the post of Junior Environmental Engineer and the respondents were directed to keep her result in a sealed cover, and accordingly she appeared in the written examination and finally her petition was allowed vide order dtd. 12/7/2011 and the respondents were directed to declare her result and consider her case for appointment on the post of Junior Environmental Engineer. The above order was unsuccessfully challenged by the respondents before the Division Bench and before the Hon'ble Apex Court and the appeals were dismissed on 26/7/2012 and 23/11/2012 respectively, and finally appointment was given to the petitioner vide order dtd. 10/12/2012 and on the basis of her merit, she was placed at serial number 6 in the seniority list prepared by the respondents for departmental promotion to the post of Assistant Environmental Engineer for the year 2015-16. Since the petitioner was not having requisite experience of Five years on the post of Junior Engineer, hence Departmental Promotion Committee (for short "DPC") did not consider her case for promotion. Due to lack of requisite experience of Five years, many posts remained vacant, hence the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (for short "RSPC Board") requested the State Government to grant relaxation in experience to fill the vacant promotion posts, and accordingly a decision was taken by the State to relax the Rules and relaxation of one-third (1/3) period was given for promotion to the post of Assistant Environmental Engineer. In spite of grant of one-third period relaxation, the petitioner was lacking two-third experience, hence her case was not considered for promotion.