YAMUNA RAM Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the parties.

(2.) The petitioner has approached this Court with a prayer for quashing the orders dated 23.08.2016 and 24.08.2016 issued by the respondent No. 2 and further prayer has been made for a direction upon the respondents to promote the petitioner on the post of Chief Engineer.

(3.) Sans details, the facts as averred in the writ petition, in a nutshell is that petitioner was appointed on 15.07.1987 to the post of Assistant Engineer in Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) on the recommendation of Bihar Public Service Commission under the Scheduled Caste Category and is presently working as Superintending Engineer in Drinking Water and Sanitation Circle under the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department, Medni Nagar. He was promoted to the post of Executive Engineer in Drinking Water and Sanitation Department vide memo no. 3737 dated 29.08.2013, subsequently, he was again promoted vide notification no. 4734 dated 03.11.2015 to the post of Superintending Engineer in Drinking Water and Sanitation Department, Govt. of Jharkhand. It is stated that the Superintending Engineer is the Feeder Cadre to the post of Chief Engineer and the same is filled up by giving promotion to the Superintending Engineer. It is the further case of the petitioner that in Drinking Water and Sanitation Department in the year, 2015 one vacancy has arose to the post of Chief Engineer, which is a cadre post and the same is being filled up by rotational roster. The respondent No. 2 in course of roster clearance observed that the vacancy is of the Scheduled Caste Category but no candidate of Scheduled Caste Category is available in the Feeder Grade i.e. Superintending Engineer and accordingly decided that the same will be filled up by the General Category Candidate and one person will retire on 30.06.2016 from the General Category then the said post will be filled up by the candidate of Scheduled Caste Category. Although, the said decision was not in terms of rotational roster policy as well as guideline of the Hon'ble Apex Court as the said vacancy is to be carried forward till the availability of the Scheduled Caste Candidate. But after the retirement of Ram Bilash Sinha a General Category Candidate from the post of Chief Engineer on 30.06.2016, the respondent No. 4 sent the file in the office of the respondent no. 2 & 3 for roster clearance to the post of chief Engineer in Drinking Water and Sanitation Department.