S.B.Civil Writ Petition No.1488/1995 Gopal Krishna Sharma & Ors. Vs. Rajasthan Civil Services Appellate Tribunal & Ors. Date of order : 19.02.2009 HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE PREM SHANKER ASOPA Mr. Sanjeev Prakash Sharma for petitioners. Ms. Priyanka Pareek, Dy. Government Counsel for State. None present on behalf of the respondents. Heard learned counsel for the parties. By this writ petition the petitioners have challenged the judgment of the Rajasthan Civil Services Appellate Tribunal, Rajasthan, Jaipur dated 30.03.1995 (Annex.15) whereby the final seniority list dated 18.01.1992 is quashed and set aside, so far as the appellant therein and private respondent herein are concerned with a direction that they are entitled for higher seniority than the present petitioners with a further direction of adhoc promotion as Assistant Director w.e.f. 18.1.1992, the date on which the junior persons as per direction No.1 has been promoted. The relevant portion of the judgment of the Tribunal is as follows :- “ In view of the above discussions the appeals of the appellants are accepted and following directions are issued to respondent Nos. 1 and 2 :- (1). The seniority list dated 18.1.1992 so far it relates to the appellants and PRs is quashed. The appellants are entitled to higher seniority - 2 - than the PRs. The Respondent State is directed to revise the impugned seniority list accordingly by placing the appellants senior to PRs. The impugned rejection order dated 18.1.92 is also set aside. (2). On the basis of the revised seniority the appellants are also entitled for consideration for adhoc promotion as Asstt. Director and on being found suitable they would be entitled to adhoc promotion w.e.f. 18.1.1992 the date on which the juniors persons were given promotion or from the date the juniors persons took over the charge on the promotion posts which ever is later. If they are found suitable for being given adhoc promotion they would be entitled to all consequential benefits of pay scale including financial benefits of fixation of pay from that date with arrears of the pay because they were wrongly denied the right to get such promotion prior to PRs. This order would be operative till the adhoc promotion of these PRs continued. In case regular promotions have been given to PRs those orders would be reviewed to consider the cases of the appellants being senior to those PRs for regular promotion with consequential benefits including financial benefits.” The submission of Mr. S.P.Sharma, appearing on behalf of the petitioners is that the respondents have been screened on the lower post of Urban Extension Educator vide order dated 06.07.1968 (Annexure/7) and have been - 3 - further screened on the post of Education & Publicity Officer (EPO) vide order dated 27.12.1969 (Annexure/6),therefore, they cannot claim seniority over the petitioners who were selected through Rajasthan Public Service Commission on 01.03.1973. Otherwise also the petitioners service experience for promotion to the post of Assistant Director would be counted from 15.12.1976. The Counsel for the State Government has supported the judgment of the learned Tribunal but neither Government filed reply to the writ petition nor the private respondents. The operation of the judgment of the Rajasthan Civil Services Appellate Tribunal was stayed by this Court on 17.04.1995 with a further direction that the petitioners shall not be reverted,the said stay order is still in force as same was confirmed on 08.09.1997. Counsel for the petitioners submits that the private respondent No.4 retired on 31st of March 1997. I have considered the aforesaid judgment and gone through the contents of writ petition and is of the view that neither the private respondent was entitled for higher seniority nor the promotion, in view of their screening on the lower post of Urban Extension - 4 - Educator as well as Education & Publicity Officer (EPO) vide orders dated 06.07.1968 (Annexure/7) and 27.12.1969 (Annexure/6) respectively. Therefore, the Tribunal has committed gross illegality in granting the aforesaid seniority as well as further direction for adhoc promotion to the respondent on the post of Assistant Director. In view of the above, the judgment of the Tribunal dated 30.03.1995 (Annexure/15) is quashed and set aside and the writ petition filed by the petitioners is allowed. (PREM SHANKER ASOPA),J. Gandhi 2