State Of Uttaranchal & Anr vs Shiv Charan Singh Bhandari & Ors

3. The respondents were appointed in Group III posts in Subordinate Agricultural Services (SAS) in the Department of Agriculture in the undivided State of Uttar Pradesh. Some of them were appointed in 1974 and some in the year 1975. A provisional seniority list in the cadre of SAS Group III was prepared where they were shown senior to one Madhav Singh Tadagi. The said Madhav Singh Tadagi, who was working as Agriculture Plant Protection Supervisor, Group III, was given ad hoc promotion to the post of Assistant Development Officer (Plant Protection, Group II) by the Deputy Director of Agriculture on 15.11.1983. In the year 1983 a Selection Committee was constituted for making promotion to Group II posts on the basis of seniority-cum- fitness from amongst the employees of Group III posts and in the said selection process the respondents as well as Madhav Singh Tadagi were promoted on regular basis in Group II posts. After regular promotion was made, a seniority list was finalized in respect of promotional cadre and the respondents were shown senior to Madhav Singh Tadagi. The final seniority list was issued on 12.2.1994.

4. On 9.11.2000, under U.P. Reorganization Act, 2000 the State of Uttaranchal (presently State of Uttarakhand) was created. The respondents as well as Madhav Singh Tadagi were allocated to the State of Uttarakhand. On 14.10.2003, the respondents filed a claim petition No. 154 of 2003 before the Public Services Tribunal of Uttarakhand at Dehradun (for short “the tribunal”) claiming that they were entitled to promotion from SAS Group III to SAS Group II with effect from 15.11.1983 the date on which the junior was promoted and, accordingly, to get their pay fixed along with other consequential benefits, namely, arrears of salary and interest thereof. Be it noted, the respondents had submitted number of representations during the period from July, 2002 to June, 2003 but the said representations were not dealt with.

5. The claims put forth by the respondents were resisted by the State and its functionaries contending, inter alia, that promotion to Madhav Singh Tadagi was given by an officer who was not competent to promote any incumbent from SAS Group III to SAS Group II post; that the promotion was made without prejudice to the seniority of other employees; and that the grievance put forth was hit by limitation. The tribunal, after hearing the rival submissions urged before it, came to hold that as a junior person was extended the benefits of promotion in the year 1983, the seniors could not be deprived of the said promotional benefits and, hence, they are entitled to get promotion from the said date. Being of this view, the tribunal directed that the respondents shall be given benefits of promotion with effect from November, 1983 and as they had already been promoted in the year 1989, they would be entitled to notional promotional benefits from 15.11.1983.

6. Assailing the order of the tribunal the State of Uttarakhand and its functionaries preferred Writ Petition No. 133 of 2006 before the High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital. The High Court opined that Madhav Singh Tadagi was promoted on ad hoc basis, continued in the said post and was allowed increments and the promotional pay-scale till his regular promotion, and the claimants though seniors, were promoted on a later date on regular basis and, therefore, the directions issued by the tribunal could not be found fault with. After disposal of the writ petition, an application for review was filed with did not find favour with the High Court and accordingly it dismissed the same by order dated 2.3.2012. Hence, the present appeals by special leave have been preferred challenging the said orders.

20. In New Delhi Municipal Council v. Pan Singh and others[10], the Court has opined that though there is no period of limitation provided for filing a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, yet ordinarily a writ petition should be filed within a reasonable time. In the said case the respondents had filed the writ petition after seventeen years and the court, as stated earlier, took note of the delay and laches as relevant factors and set aside the order passed by the High Court which had exercised the discretionary jurisdiction.

Consequently, the appeals are allowed and the orders passed by the High Court and that of the tribunal are set aside. There shall be no order as to costs.