Electricity Department, Group B (Technical) Assistant Engineer (Electrical) Recruitment Rules, 1979 – Promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer (Electrical) – Under the Rules, 80% of the vacancies for the post of Assistant Engineer were to be filled up by promotion and 20% by direct recruitment – Out of this 80%, 50% were earmarked for those Junior Engineers who possessed Degree in Engineering with regular service of 3 years and the other 50% for those possessing Diploma with regular service of 7 years – Junior Engineers-private respondents, who were originally Diploma holders and had acquired degree during service, were promoted as Assistant Engineers immediately after acquiring their degree without insistence on 3 years of continuous service from the date of acquisition of the degree – Challenged by appellants who had joined the service as Junior Engineers, having already acquired an Engineering Degree prior to the said appointment – CAT held partly in favour of the appellants relying on Shailendra Dania case – High Court held in favour of the Respondents relying on D. Stephen Joseph case – Issue referred by two-Judges Bench opining that D. Stephen Joseph case did not reflect the correct opinion as while construing almost identical Rules, the three-Judges Bench in Shailendra Dania case had opined to the contrary – Answering the reference, held: View taken in D. Stephen Joseph case is the applicable law – Under the Rules, the distinction is between the diploma holder and the degree holder and the period of service rendered as a Junior Engineer without any distinction between the years served prior to or after having obtained the degree – View taken by High Court upheld – Service Law.
Service Law – Seniority – Held: In the absence of any statutory provision or rule made thereunder or under the proviso appended to Article 309, once an incumbent is appointed to the post according to rules, their seniority has to be counted from the date of appointment – Constitution of India – Article 309.
Service Law – Promotion – Two channels for promotion – Incentive to acquire the higher degree – Discussed. D. Stephen Joseph v. Union of India & Ors. (1997) 4 SCC 753 : [1997] 3 SCR 1040 – held applicable.
C. Chakkaravarthy & Ors. v. M. Satyavathy, IAS & Ors. (2015) 16 SCC 652 – relied on.
Shailendra Dania & Ors. v. S.P. Dubey & Ors. (2007)
5 SCC 535 : [2007] 5 SCR 190; M. B. Joshi v. Satish Kumar Pandey (1993) 2 Supp. SCC 419 : [1992] 2 Suppl. SCR 1; K. K. Dixit & Ors. v. Rajasthan Housing Board & Anr. (2015) 1 SCC 474 : [2014] 10 SCR 397; Anil Kumar Gupta v. Municipal Corporation of Delhi (2000) 1 SCC 128 : [1999] 4 Suppl. SCR 553;
Chandravathi P. K. & Ors. v. C. K. Saji & Ors. (2004)
3 SCC 734 : [2004] 2 SCR 330; Satpal Antil v. Union of India (1995) 4 SCC 419 : [1995] 1 Suppl. SCR 1; A. K. Raghumani Singh v. Gopal Chandra Nath (2000)
4 SCC 30 : [2000] 2 SCR 943; Pramod K. Pankaj v. State of Bihar (2004) 3 SCC 723 : [2003] 5 Suppl. SCR
916 – referred to.
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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