Service Law – Promotion – Appellant was granted permission to pursue B.A. (English) under distance education from January 2012 to December 2014 – While pursuing B.A. (English), Appellant was granted permission to pursue M.A. (Tamil) a two year distance education course between Academic Years 2013-2015 – Appellant successfully completed B.A. (English) in Dec 2014 and M.A. (Tamil) in 2015 – Appellant was promoted to the post of B.T. Assistant (English) on 06.08.2016 – Respondent No.5 challenged the promotion of appellant & others – Ground of challenge was that by obtaining two degrees simultaneously, the appellant became ineligible for promotion – Rule 14 was pressed into service which provides that teachers who obtained B.A./B.Sc and B.Ed., during the same academic year were not eligible for recommendations – Single Judge of High Court allowed the writ petition & set aside the promotion of appellant –Division Bench upheld the order of Single Judge – Held: It cannot be said that appellant obtained the degree of B.A. (English) and M.A. (Tamil) during the same academic year – Also, degree of M.A. (Tamil) cannot be equated with B.A./B.Sc./B.Ed – Therefore Rule 14 not applicable to facts of the case on hand stricto senso – Assuming that the subsequent degree obtained by appellant namely M.A. (Tamil) is ignored, in that case also, considering his degree in B.A. (English) the appellant could have been promoted to the post of B.T. Assistant (English) – Degree of B.A. (English) was sufficient as per the eligibility criteria for promotion to the post of B.T. Assistant (English) – Order of promotion of appellant to the post of B.T. Assistant (English) accordingly restored.
Allowing the appeal, the Court
HELD:1. The promotion of appellant to the post of B.T. Assistant (English) was set aside by the High Court on the ground that the appellant obtained two degrees namely B.A. (English) and M.A. (Tamil) simultaneously and therefore as per Rule 14 he was ineligible for promotion. However, considering Rule 14, it can be seen that the bar was against teachers who have obtained B.A./B.Sc./B.Ed degree simultaneously during the same academic year. In the present case it cannot be said that the appellant obtained the degree of B.A. (English) and M.A. (Tamil) during the same academic year. The appellant pursued his B.A. (English) during January, 2012 to December, 2014. He pursued his M.A. (Tamil) which was a two years distance education course between the academic years 2013-2014 to 2014-2015. Therefore, as such Rule 14 is not applicable to the facts of the case on hand stricto senso. The degree of M.A. (Tamil) cannot be equated with B.A./B.Sc./ B.Ed. Assuming that the subsequent degree obtained by the appellant namely M.A. (Tamil) is ignored, in that case also, considering his degree in B.A. (English) he could have been promoted to the post of B.T. Assistant (English). Both the degrees secured by the appellant cannot be ignored. The degree of B.A. (English) was sufficient as per the eligibility criteria for promotion to the post of B.T. Assistant (English). Under the circumstances both, the Single Judge as well as the Division Bench of the High Court materially erred and ignored the aforesaid aspect in quashing the promotion of the appellant to the post of B.T. Assistant (English). [Paras 5, 5.1 and 6][1128-D-H; 1129-A]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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