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| HC quashes promotion of 5 XEns as Incharge SEs | | | Jammu, Dec 30: The High Court today quashed promotion of five XEns who were promoted as incharge SEs in their own grade. The order was passed in a petition challenging Government order no. 437-PW(R&B) of 2013 dated November 29, 2013 that effected the promotions.
The petitioners had questioned the above order insofar as private respondents 4 to 8 herein have been placed as Incharge Superintending Engineers in their own pay and grade.
The petitioners had also prayed for issuance of Mandamus commanding the respondents to refer all the cases of stop gap promotions from the posts of Assistant Engineers up to the posts of Executive Engineers, including those of the petitioners and respondents, to DPC/PSC for consideration and clearance and issue orders for substantive promotions in accordance with rules holding the field. The petitioners have also prayed for a direction to the respondents to forebear from giving effect to the draft tentative seniority list.
Justice Ali Mohd Magrey observed that the impugned order dated 29.11.2013 is totally non-speaking.
It does not speak of any of the compelling or exigent reasons on which such arrangements could be ordered in terms of Rule 25(4) of the CCA Rules. However, in the reply affidavit, the respondents have disclosed certain reasons. In one of the the reply, it is stated that "in order to carry out various developmental projects / ongoing schemes the private respondents have been placed to carry out the functions of higher posts.
Further there is precedence in the department for making ad hoc / stop gap arrangement purely in public interest to ensure that ongoing development works / scheme should not be adversely affected". It is curious to notice that public interest is shown not with respect to the instant impugned arrangements, but in regard to, and to justify, the precedence in the department for making ad hoc / stop gap arrangements.
In the reply, it is stated that "the fact of the matter is that the private respondents have been placed as Incharge "Executive Engineers much before the petitioners.
Keeping in view the working experience of private respondents, administrative exigencies and public interest in order to ensure time bound implementation of various developmental programmes / schemes, the private respondents have been placed Incharge of the higher posts purely on temporary basis". The truth doubtlessly seems to be that the impugned order has been issued in tune with the precedence of making ad hoc / stopgap arrangements in the department in which the official respondents, as rightly put by them, see public interest. Ordinarily, the term "public" connotes "the members of a community as a whole", but the official respondents, given the magnitude of ad hoc Engineers working in different cadres even upto the level of Chief Engineer, seem to have reduced it to the alternate connotation, "persons having inter se common interest".
With these observations Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey observed that for all what has been stated above, the impugned Government order no. 437-PW(R&B) of 2013 dated 29.11.2013 to the extent it relates to the private respondents herein is quashed. Respondents are left free to take necessary steps commensurate with the working exigencies in the department to make regular promotions in different cadres of the Service and disposed of all the petitions. (JNF) |
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