Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd vs Ghanshyam Dass & Ors

2. The facts very briefly are that in the Department of Telecommunications of the Government of India there are four Grades of employees and these are:

Under the BCR Scheme, those employees, who were on regular service as on 01.01.1990 and had completed 4 26 years of satisfactory service in the basic grades, were to be screened by a duly constituted Committee to assess their performance and determine their suitability for advancement and if they were found suitable they were to be upgraded in the higher scale.

4. Some officers of Grade III who were senior in the basic grade but had lost their seniority in Grade III because of 5 their later promotions and who were not considered for upgradation to Grade IV under the BCR Scheme, namely, Smt. Santosh Kapoor and others, filed O.A. No.1455 of 1991 before the Central Administrative Tribunal, New Delhi, contending on the basis of clarification on Point No.10 made in the letter dated 11.0.3.1991 that under the BCR Scheme, seniority in the basic grade was to be counted for the purpose of upgradation on completion of 26 years of service and this contention was resisted by the Government and other respondents in the O.A. and the Tribunal in its order dated 07.07.1992 directed that promotions of 10% posts in the scale of Rs.2000-3200 (Grade IV) would have to be based on seniority in the basic grade subject to fulfillment of other conditions in the BCR Scheme and further directed the Government to consider the applicants in the O.A. from due dates with consequential benefits. In the order dated 07.07.1992, the Tribunal, however, observed that employees who may be senior to the applicants in the O.A. in the scale of Rs.1600-2660 (Grade III) and who may have already been given the scale of Rs.2000-3200 (Grade IV) at the cost of those who were senior in the basic grades by any different 6 interpretation of the BCR Scheme, may in the discretion of the Government instead of being reverted, be considered for promotion to scale of Rs.2000-3200 (Grade IV) by suitable adjustments in the number of posts by upgradation as necessary. The Government challenged the order dated 07.07.1992 of the Tribunal in Civil Appeal No.3201 of 1993 but by order dated 09.09.1993 this Court held that the direction by the Tribunal cannot be faulted and accordingly dismissed the appeal.

6. The respondents in C.A. No.4369 of 2006 Shri Ghanshyam Dass and others filed O.A. No.2484 of 1997 and the respondents in C.A. No.4370 of 2006 Shri Chiddu Singh and others filed O.A. No.2099 of 1997 before the Central Administrative Tribunal contending that employees who were juniors to them in the basic grade but otherwise senior in Grade-III, had been given promotion to Grade-IV earlier to the dates when the respondents were given such promotion and by a common order dated 11.08.2000 the Tribunal allowed the O.As. and directed the Government to consider promoting them to Grade IV with effect from the dates their immediate juniors in the basic grade seniority were so promoted subject to their otherwise being found fit for promotion on such dates with consequential benefits including seniority and arrears of pay and allowances and retiral benefits in the case of those who had retired on superannuation. The Government filed writ petitions C.W. No.4555 of 2000 and C.W. No.4556 of 2000 in the High Court of Delhi, but by the two separate impugned orders the 8 High Court found that the Tribunal, while allowing the applications, had directed the Government to follow its own circular dated 13.12.1995 which had been issued pursuant to the order of the Tribunal dated 07.07.1992 in O.A. No.1455 of 1991 which had attained finality after dismissal of the appeals by this Court and accordingly dismissed the two writ petitions.

18. We accordingly allow these appeals and set aside the impugned orders dated 22.05.2003 of the High Court and the common order dated 11.08.2000 of the Central Administrative Tribunal in O.A. No. 2484 of 1997 and O.A. No.2099 of 1997. The two O.As. stand rejected. There will be no order as to costs.