PROMILA SRIHAN Vs. RANCHI UNIVERSITY, RANCHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this Court seeking a direction upon the respondents to implement the order passed on 14.11.1978 by the Chancellor in exercise of power under Section 9 of the Bihar State Universities Act, 1976 and for a further direction that the reduction of pay from Rs. 6300/- per month to Rs. 4500/- per month which has been effected from April, 1997 should not be given effect to in the case of the petitioner. Brief facts of the case are that, the petitioner was initially a Research Scholar in the Post Graduate Department of Sanskrit in the Punjab University since 30.10.1963. She was appointed as Lecturer of Sanskrit in the Government College for Women, Ludhiana. A chart giving details of experience of the petitioner as Lecturer in other Institutes has been given which is extracted below:

(2.) On 10.09.1974, on the recommendation of the Public Service Commission, the petitioner was appointed as a Lecturer with effect from 10.09.1974 in the pay-scale of Rs. 400-40-800-50-950 vide notification dated 10.09.1974. The petitioner's appointment was confirmed by order dated 20.09.1974. It appears that one Smt. Satyabhama Mishra approached the Chancellor by filing a petition seeking promotion to the post of Professor and pursuant to the decision by the Chancellor, her case was considered by the University and she was promoted as College Professor. The petitioner also filed a representation before the Chancellor and vide order dated 14.11.1978, the Chancellor passed an order granting promotion to the petitioner to the post of Professor with effect from 01.04.1974. The Registrar of the University issued a notification on 28/29.11.1974 promoting the petitioner to the post of College Professor of Sanskrit with effect from 01.04.1974 subject to the concurrence of the Public Service Commission. The petitioner continued to work on the post of Professor, but since the concurrence of the Commission did not come, the Registrar of the Ranchi University wrote a letter on 02.01.1993 to the Secretary, Bihar State University Constituent Colleges Service Commission, Patna, seeking concurrence of the Commission with respect to the recommendation made in favour of the petitioner. However, no such concurrence was received and in the meantime, Bihar State University Constituent Colleges Service Commission was dissolved. The petitioner also superannuated from service with effect from 31.08.2001. It appears that after March, 1997 the pay-scale of the petitioner was reduced from Rs. 6,300/- per month to Rs. 4,500/- per month. No notice was given to the petitioner before effecting such reduction in the pay-scale. In these facts, the petitioner has approached this Court seeking a direction upon the respondents to give effect to the order passed by the Chancellor on 14.11.1978 and not to give effect to the order of reduction of her pay-scale from Rs. 6,300/- to Rs. 4,500/-.

(3.) A counter-affidavit has been filed in which a plea has been raised that since the order of promotion of the petitioner was subject to the concurrence of the Public Service Commission and till the time the petitioner superannuated from service, concurrence of the Service Commission could not be obtained and therefore, the order of promotion of the petitioner could not be given effect. On this ground, the claim of the petitioner has been resisted by the respondent-Ranchi University.