C.W.P. No.17904 of 1994 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. C.W.P. No.17904 of 1994 (O&M) DATE OF DECISION : 1.12.2011 Kitab Singh PETITIONER VERSUS Bhakra Beas Management Board and others RESPONDENTS CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MAHESH GROVER Present:- Shri S.D.Sharma, Senior Advocate with Ms.Bindu Goel, Advocate for the petitioner. Shri Ankit Goel, Advocate for Shri Govind Goel, Advocate for respondents 1 and 2. Shri R.L.Sharma, Advocate for respondents 3 and 4. MAHESH GROVER, J. The grievance of the petitioner is that he should have been appointed as S.S.A. (Sub Station Attendant). His case is that he was appointed as T-Mate in the year 1982 with the Bhakra Beas Management Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board) and his services were placed with the Xen at Hissar. In 1989, he was regularised as T-Mate and continued to discharge functioning as such. In the year 1992, two posts of Charge-man/S.S.A. fell vacant which were to be filled up from the members of the S.C./Reserved category. The petitioner being S.C., was aspiring to be appointed as S.S.A., but the respondents appointed respondents 3 C.W.P. No.17904 of 1994 -2- and 4 instead. The petitioner claims that this has erroneously been done and the reason for this is that he being fully qualified having Matric with ITI, was entitled to be considered in accordance with the policy instructions of the Board which have been appended to the reply filed to the petition as Annexures R-1 and R-2. These instructions envisage filling up of posts from the reserved category. The respondents have denied the claim of the petitioner and have stated that the instructions Annexures R-1 and R-2 were merely aimed at encouraging utilising the backlog of vacancies from reserved category and in order to give more beneficial interpretation, it was clarified by the Additional Secretary, B.B.M.B. vide letter dated 22.7.1992 that where suitable S.C. candidates are not available in the B.B.M.B. retrenchees/daily rated workers, the posts may be filled up by direct recruitment through the Employment Exchange. Learned counsel for the petitioner places heavy reliance on this clarification to say that only members of the S.C. ought to have been picked up from the B.B.M.B. and therefore, in the event of no candidate being available, the desirability of filling up the posts from the retrenched/daily rated workers should have been explored, as also the possibility of filling up the posts through Employment Exchange. The aforesaid contention has been opposed by the learned counsel for the respondents who have stated with reference to Anneuxre P-3 which gives details of the number of vacancies existing at that time and where requisitioning had been made directing the respective officials to send bio-data of individuals having requisite qualifications to fill up the vacancies out of daily rated workers/ contingent/work-charge staff having service of more than 240 days, which requisition was required to be sent by 18.12.1990. It is thus, the positive case of the respondents that the only endeavour was to fill up the posts from reserved C.W.P. No.17904 of 1994 -3- category of employees which benefit was intended for the persons who stood retrenched or worked on contingent/daily rated basis. On due consideration of the matter, I am of the opinion that the grievance of the petitioner is misplaced. Annexure P-3 is the document in which the names were solicited from various departments so as to fill up the vacant posts and it was specified that such exercise is to be confined to the retrenched employees work-charge employees/daily rated workers/contingent employees. It nowhere extends the requirement to the existing regular employees as the learned counsel for the petitioner would want this Court to read and interpret. It has further been explained by the respondents in Annexures R-1 and R-2 that the desirability to fill up these posts from such floating human resources with no regular roots was the benevolent principle of extending benefit of employment to a larger arena. The petitioner who was already working as a regular T-Mate, thus had no inherent right to be considered for the said post. It was not a case of promotion as occasionally the learned counsel for the petitioner wanted it to be considered keeping in view the fact that the post of S.S.A. at a higher pay-scale than that of a T-Mate. The respondents have been meticulous in observing that the principles underlying public appointment have been adhered to in letter and spirit. The Board being the employer, was very well within its rights to prescribe the source from where the vacancies were to be filled up and in the event of a decision being applied uniformly and no slant being visible in such a process and also keeping in view the fact that the petitioner had no inherent right to claim appointment to that post, I am of the considered opinion that the writ petition is without any merit and is hence dismissed. (MAHESH GROVER) December 1, 2011 JUDGE GD WHETHER TO BE REFERRED TO REPORTER? YES/NO C.W.P. No.17904 of 1994 -4-