RAFAT ARA Vs. RANCHI UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner (since retired) while was posted as Head of the Post Graduate Department in Urdu, Ranchi University has filed this writ application wherein promotion of respondent no. 5 as Reader with effect from 21.2.1988 and also to the post of University Professor with effect from 17.3.1994 under the scheme of time bound promotion has been challenged.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that the petitioner having been appointed on the post of Lecturer in Urdu in Ranchi University was posted in the Ranchi Women's College where she was working as Lecturer on temporary basis and in course of time, she was promoted to the post of Reader under time bound scheme on completion of 10 years of service with effect from 1.2.1985. Subsequently, she, in the year 2002, was declared as senior most teacher of Urdu and was transferred to Post Graduate Department of Urdu, Ranchi University as Head of the Post Graduate Department of Urdu. However, in the year 2003, respondent no. 5 was declared senior to her, though he was quite junior to her as Reader. In this regard it has been stated that Respondent No.5 had been appointed as Lecturer in Urdu on temporary basis in Doranda College on 21.2.1978 for a period of six months only, though he was appointed on regular basis on 18.11.1980 but that was against the provision of the Bihar State Universities Act, 1976. Subsequently, under the scheme, he was promoted to the post of leader with effect from 21.2.1988 on the recommendation of Bihar State Universities (Constituent Colleges) Service Commission without completion of 10 years of continuous service as Lecturer and as such, the promotion was against the provision of the statute relating to time bound promotion. Again respondent no. 5 without completing 16 years of continuous service, as required under the statute then in force, was promoted to the post of Professor with effect from 17.3.1994 on the recommendation of the Commission which was also illegal as the respondent no. 5 on the date of promotion had not completed 16 years of service as he had been appointed as Lecturer on regular basis only on 18.11.1980. Thus, it was submitted on behalf of the petitioner that promotion of the respondent no. 5 to the post of Reader and subsequently to the post of Professor is completely in contravention of the provision of the statute then in force and as such, the promotion of respondent no. 5 to the said post is quite illegal and is fit to be set aside.

(3.) LEARNED counsel in this respect submits that there has been reason for inclusion of the period of service from 21.2.1978 to 18.11.1980 rendered by the petitioner as temporary lecturer for counting length of service as it has been held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court rendered in a case of Direct Recruit Class -II Engineering Officers Association vs. State of Maharashtra as reported in AIR 1990 SC 1627 that even the period of officiation is to be counted in the length of service and that view subsequently was reiterated in a case of Dr. Ratneshwar Mishra vs. The Chancellor, L.N.M. University (Civil Appeal NO.1196 of 1995) decided by the Hon'ble Supreme Court.