KISHORI RAJAK Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the parties.

(2.) Petitioner has approached this Court with a prayer for direction upon the respondents to grant him promotion to the post of Superintending Engineer w.e.f. 31.07.2007 with all consequential benefits. Further prayer has been made for a direction upon the respondents to grant him promotion to the post of Chief Engineer w.e.f. 11.07.2010 with all consequential benefits.

(3.) The factual exposition as has been delineated in the writ petition is that petitioner was appointed as Assistant Engineer by the Bihar Public Service Commission and joined the said post on 20.06.1987, under Water Resources Department, Govt. of Jharkhand, Ranchi. It is the case of the petitioner that he was granted regular promotion to the post of Executive Engineer w.e.f. 20.06.1995 vide notification No. 4865 dated 31.08.1996. The petitioner is a member of Scheduled Caste and as such, he was covered by the provision of one year relaxation in the prescribed period of ten years of service as Executive Engineer for promotion to the post of Superintending Engineer. As such, the petitioner became eligible for promotion to the post of Superintending Engineer on 20.06.2004 i.e. on completion of 9 years of services, but in the report of the D.P.C. it has been mentioned that the respondents have considered 10 years' services on the post of Executive Engineer as eligibility for promotion to the post of Superintending Engineer. Subsequently, vide notification dated 19.07.2007, the petitioner was posted as Superintending Engineer, Water Ways Circle, Chaibasa and pursuant to the said notification, the petitioner had given his joining on the post of Superintending Engineer, Water Ways Circle, Chaibasa on 31.07.2007. It is the specific case of the petitioner that though he had completed the requisite period of 9 years of regular services on the post of Executive Engineer in the year 2004 itself but he was given the promotion to the post of Superintending Engineer in the year 2007 i.e. 3 years after his actual date of eligibility/entitlement. Thereafter, after completing 3 years of services as Superintending Engineer, he was posted as Chief Engineering w.e.f. 11.07.2010, vide notification dated 05.07.2010. Subsequently, the petitioner has retired from his services on 31.01.2018.