HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE G. CHANDRAIAH WRIT PETITION No. 492 OF 2003 DATED 23RD MARCH, 2010. BETWEEN M.Rajaveeru …Petitioner And The Divisional Electrical Engineer, Northern Power Distribution Company Limited, Warangal andanr. ….Respondent. HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE G. CHANDRAIAH WRIT PETITION No. 492 OF 2003: ORDER: Assailing the action of the respondents in not promoting the petitioner to the post of Lineman from the feeder category of Assistant Lineman with all consequential beneﬁts, from the date on which his juniors were promoted, this writ petition is ﬁled. It is the case of the petitioner that initially he was appointed as Helper under the control of the ﬁrst respondent on 16.9.1983 and subsequently promoted to the post of Assistant Lineman in April, 1991 and that while in service he appeared for IX class examination conducted by the Warangal District Common Examination Board, Warangal with Roll No. 596 and the said qualiﬁcation was entered in his service register and consequently his name was shown in the seniority list of Assistant Linemen at Sl.No. 37, dated 1.12.1998. It is the grievance of the petitioner that though he is eligible to be considered for promotion to the post of Lineman, but ignoring his case, his juniors, namely, I. Ramesh (Sl.No. 70), V.Kumara swamy (Sl.No. 72), C.Vijaypal Reddy (Sl.No. 81), R.Sadanandam (Sl.No. 83), P.Anandam (Sl.No. 88) and others were promoted. He stated that he made a representation to the ﬁrst respondent enclosing IX class pass certiﬁcate and requested to consider his case for promotion to the post of Lineman on par with his juniors. He further stated that inspite of intimation of genuineness of his IX class certiﬁcate by the competent authorities vide letter dated April, 2002, his case was not considered for promotion. Hence, this Writ Petition. Counter aﬃdavit is ﬁled on behalf of the respondents admitting the appointment of the petitioner as Helper, later his promotion to the post of Assistant Lineman and submission of IX class certiﬁcate. However, it was stated in the counter aﬃdavit that the petitioner has submitted Xerox copy of the IX class certiﬁcate without approval by the Divisional Engineer (Operation), Warangal and hence, the same was not entered in his service register. It was stated that pursuant to the memo addressed to the petitioner, he submitted a representation on 23.1.2002 enclosing original educational qualiﬁcation certiﬁcate and requested to promote him to the post of Lineman duly incorporating the said qualiﬁcation in the service register. However, as there was alteration in the date of birth of the petitioner in the original certiﬁcate, the respondents sent the same for veriﬁcation to the District Educational Oﬃcer, who after verifying the records, intimated the genuineness of the same to the respondents on 15.4.2002. Further, as the DPC members observed that the identiﬁcation marks in the educational qualiﬁcation certiﬁcate were not tallying with the identiﬁcation marks in the service register, the said certiﬁcate was sent to the Corporate Oﬃce on 20.1.2003. Subsequently, the matter was referred to APTS for investigation, which submitted its report conﬁrming the genuineness of the said certiﬁcate. The Medical Board, to which the petitioner was referred to for veriﬁcation of the identiﬁcation marks physically, conﬁrmed the identiﬁcation marks as stated in the qualiﬁcation certiﬁcate. In the counter aﬃdavit, it was further stated that in between these long drawn proceedings to establish authentication and genuineness of the certiﬁcate submitted by the petitioner to consider his case for promotion to the post of Lineman, some of the juniors to the petitioner were promoted The learned Counsel for the petitioner, reiterating the factual averments made in the aﬃdavit ﬁled in support of the Writ Petition submitted that inasmuch as the petitioner has got necessary qualiﬁcation of IX class from the competent authority, he is eligible for promotion to the post of Lineman, but, however, without considering his case, the respondents have promoted the juniors to the petitioner to the posts of Lineman. He further submitted that the action of the respondents in not considering the case of the petitioner for promotion is illegal and arbitrary and therefore, necessary direction may be given to the respondents to consider the case of the petitioner for promotion to the post of Lineman on par with his juniors. On the other hand, the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the respondents submitted that as the petitioner failed to produce original IX Class certiﬁcate at relevant time, the long drawn process had involved in establishing authentication and genuineness of the said certiﬁcate and in between these proceedings, juniors to the petitioners who are eligible to be considered for promotion, were promoted to the post of Lineman. There is no dispute as to the appointment of the petitioner to the post of Helper and his subsequent promotion to the post of Assistant Lineman. This Writ Petition was ﬁled in the month of January, 2003. The veriﬁcations of the IX class certiﬁcate submitted by the petitioner, as stated in the counter aﬃdavit, were completed by the end of January, 2003. However, counter to the writ petition was ﬁled in November, 2005. In the counter aﬃdavit ﬁled on behalf of the respondents, there is no denial of the factual averments stated by the petitioner in the aﬃdavit ﬁled in support of the Writ Petition. There is no dispute as to the authentication and genuineness of the certiﬁcate submitted by the petitioner and the same was established much earlier to the ﬁling of the counter aﬃdavit, but however, even by the time of ﬁling the counter, the case of the petitioner was not considered for promotion. From the above, it appears, there is inordinate delay in considering the case of the petitioner for promotion to the post of Lineman. The same resulted in denial of promotion to the petitioner for a considerable period. Admittedly, there is no dispute that the petitioner is entitled to the promotion to the post of Lineman. In that view of the matter, the Writ Petition is disposed of directing the respondents to consider the case of the petitioner for promotion to the post of Lineman on par with his juniors, with all consequential beneﬁts, and pass appropriate orders within a period of two months from the date of the receipt of a copy of this order. With the above direction, the Writ Petition is disposed of. No order as to costs. --------------------------------------- JUSTICE G. CHANDRAIAH DATED 23RD MARCH, 2010. Msnr.