Central Administrative Tribunal - Mumbai
Swati Sudhesh Shete vs Chairman & Managing Director on 18 July, 2012
1 T.A. No. 07/2009 CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL BOMBAY BENCH, MUMBAI TRANSFERRED APPLICATION NO.:- 07 of 2009 Dated this Wednesday the 18th day of July, 2012 CORAM:- HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE A.K. BASHEER, MEMBER (J) HON'BLE SHRI R.C. JOSHI, MEMBER (A) 1. Swati Sudhesh Shete, K. 19/6, Barve Nagar, Bhatt Wadi, Mumbai 400 084. 2. Vijay Krishna Vatinam, Flat No.10, Bldg. No.2, C/o Prabhat Colony, Salisbury Park, Pune 411 037. ... Petitioners (By Advocate Shri P.Anilkumar) Versus 1. Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, having his Corporate Office at Statesman House, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi. 2. Chief General Manager, Maharashtra Telecom Circle, Fountain Telecom, Bldg. No.2, 8th Floor, Flora Fountain, Mumbai. 3. V.J. Naik, C/o O/o Chief General Manager, Maharashtra Telecom Circle, Fountain Telecom, Bldg. No.2, 8th floor, Flora Fountain, Mumbai. 4. R.R. Shigwan, C/o Office of the Chief General Manager, Maharashtra Telecom Circle, Fountain Telecom, Bldg. No.2, 8th floor, Flora Fountain, Mumbai. 2 T.A. No. 07/2009 5. Devi Prasad Singh 6. Om Prakash Singh 7. N.V.S. Nair 8. Satyadeo Mani Tripathi 9. Mrs. Leena Garry Machado (The applicant nos. 5 to 7 and 9 are presently working as Senior TOA under Assistant General Manager (Comm) Telecom, Vasai. The Applicant no.6 is working as Hindi Translator under General Manager, Telecom, Vasai). 10. N.B. Chavan 11. R.P. Singh 12. S.S. Mishra 13. P. Srinivas 14. B.V. Yadav 15. S.M. Parab 16. R.R. Rai 17. D.D. Khair 18. V.S. Pandey 19. R.M. Prajapati 20. Smt. S.P. Deo 21. Smt.A.S. Sutaria 22. Smt.S.S. Pawar 23. Smt.B.S. Jumani 24. K.H. Tiwari (The applicant nos. 10 to 24 are working as Senior TOA/SS in CTO, Mumbai). 25. Mote Dattartraya Malhari 26. Smt. Arati Sharad Yelwande 3 T.A. No. 07/2009 27. Smt.Pratibha Vivek Deshpande 28. Smt.Varsha Deepak Kulkarni 29. Smt.Nilima Sudhir Mahajani 30. Smt.Veena Raggnath Kulkarni 31. Smt.Madhura Madhav Khire 32. Mrs.Kaveri Sudhir Valragkar 33. Mrs. Rasane Nilima Hemchandra 34. Mrs.Nilima Vikas Rogekar 35. Deepak Ramchandra Sonar 36. Gautam Vishnu Shelar 37. Ashok Raghunath Khaire 38. Vinayak Melhari Raskar 39. Smt.Shashikala Rajshekhar Sharma 40. Smt. Rohini Subhash Kulkarni 41. Smt.Jayshree Subhash Deshkulkarni 42. Smt.Kanchan Dilip Deo 43. Vaishali Anil Dhongade 44. Manish Sadashiv Tamboli 45. Sunil Ratilal Jain (The applicant nos.25 to 45 are working as Sr.TOA/TSO and SS under Principal General Manager, Telecom, Pune). 46. Shekhar Achutrao Kulkarni 47. Deepak Narayanrao Mohide 48. Vijay Gopalrao Deo 49. Smt.Varsha Mohanrao Rudrwar 50. Smt.R.S. Naik 51. Smt.Anita Vinayakrao Borgaonkar 4 T.A. No. 07/2009 52. Smt.Bhavne Ramchandrao Aphle 53. Balkrishna Madhavrao Chitnis 54. Parasram Suryabhan Balkhande (The Applicant Nos. 46 to 54 are working as Senior TOA under General Manager Telcom, Aurangabad.). 55. Ashok Dadu Sutar 56. Madanrao Ganpati Khankar 57. Maruti Govind Kurade 58. Dattatraya Balkrishna Kulkarni 59. Anande Shripati Lambe 60. Mrs.Supriya Vivek Bhavsar 61. Mrs.Anjali Satish Joshi 62. Bharat Shripati Ruikar (The Applicant nos.55 to 62 are working as TSO/SS under General Manager, Telecom, Kolhapur.) 63. Sukhdeo Haribhau Bansode 64. Prakash Shivmurti Sakharshete 65. Rajkumar Dhondiram Bhokare 66. Jagannath Bhagwanrao Badwane 67. Deepak Dinnanath Dixit 68. Nagrao Chhaganrao Deshmukh 69. Smt.Pratibha Digambar Baile (The Applicant Nos.63 to 69 are working as Sr. TOA/JS under General Manager, Telecom,Latur) 70. Nitin Anant Baikar 71. Sandesh Harsichanra Khedekar 72. Smt.Smita Yashwant Chotu (The Applicant nos. 70 to 72 are working as Senior TOA in Malgund, Dapoli and Chiplun respectively under General Manager, Telecom,Ratnagiri. 5 T.A. No. 07/2009 73. Sunil Keshav Namade 74. Chaandrakhan Ramchandra Sonar 75. Pankaj Shantaram Kulkarni 76. Ratnakar Sitaram Patil 77. Shaikh Hasnuddin Rafluddin 78. Sunil Vasantrao Khute 79. Madhukar Ratan Sonar (The Applicants nos. 75 to 79 are working as TOA under General Manager, Telecom, Jalgaon.) 80. Popat Dada Sagalgile 81. Chandrakant Sadashiv Kurve 82. Dilip Shivram Shende 83. Girish Pralhad Torevekar 84. Ramakant Sitaram Bhagwat 85. Sunil Devidas Pare 86. Vitthal Vinayak Havile 87. Nanasaheb Namdeo Shekade 88. Balu Bhimji Agarkar 89. Dattatraya Ramkishan Honde 90. Smt.Sunanda Shrikant Ashtekar 91. Smt.Savita Shrikant Jadhav 92. Sudam Shankar More 93. Babasaheb Baburao Ghuge 94. Gokul Rambhau Desai 95. Ramesh Digambar Badve 96. Asifali Hafijali Meer 97. Naresh Vinayak Kulkarni 6 T.A. No. 07/2009 98. Pradeepkumar Murlidhar Doles 99. Ashok Laxman Jadhav 100. D.M. Doifode. (The applicant nos.80 to 100 are working as Senior TOA/under General Manager, Telecom, Ahmednagar. 101. Bhatu Natthu Dhagdhage 102. Pramod Pandit Mali 103. Bapu Raghunath Borse (Applicant nos.101 to 103 are working as Senior TOA under General Manager Telecom, Dhule). 104. Vikas Vasant Tol 105. Raghunandan Narayan Muley 106. Raghunath Shankar Kumbhar (The Applicant nos.104 to 106 are working as Senior TOA under General Manager, Telecom, Satara.) 107. Prakash Govindrao Patil 108. Madhukar Nivrutti Taksal 109. Janardan Shankarrao Wagh (Applicant nos.107 to 109 are working as Sr.TOA in the O/o TDM, Jalna). 110. Smt.Jyoti Deepak Wankhede 111. Smt.Vidyakumar Bobde 112. Narendra Bhaurao Vitalkar 113. Smt. Sangita Sanjay Paturde 114. Smt.Vidya Sagar Kandelkar 115. Smt.Ranjana Balkrishna Kadu (Applicant nos. 110 to 115 are working as TOA under General Manager, Telecom, Amravati,). 116. Pramod Pralhad Nawale 7 T.A. No. 07/2009 117. Avinash Bhaskarrao Inardar 118. Sham Bhagwanrao Raoke (Applicant nos.116 to 118 working as Sr.TOA under General Manager, Telecom, Parbhani). 119. Shivaji Kalba Shinde 120. Vijay Ramrao Deosarkar (Applicants nos.119 and 120 are working as Senior TOA under General Manager, Telecom, Nanded). 121. Smt.Shobha Mohan Burade 122. Smt.Madhuri Harish Gyanchandani 123. Smt.Jaya Vasant Kulkarni (Applicants 121 to 123 are working as Senior TOA under Principal General Manager, Telecom, Nagpur. 124. Waman Hari Vaidya working as TM, General Manager, Telecom, Bhandara. 125. Uma Girish Nargunde Senior TOA under General Manager, Telecom, Nashik. 126. Kumari Sunita Shankarrao Khanzode Senior TOA under General Manager, Telecom,Yavatmal. 127. Vilas Atmaram Supekar Senior TOA under General Manager, Telecom,Beed. 128. A.R. Joshi 129. Smt.A.A. Kulkarni 130. Mrs.V.V. Malase 131. Mrs.V.S. Kulkarni 132. R.N. Chavan 133. S.D. Mane 8 T.A. No. 07/2009 (Applicant nos.128 to 133 are working as Sr.TOA under General Manager, telecom,Sangli). 134. Mujeeb Ahmed Siddique working as Senior TOA under General Manager, Telecom, Buldhana. 135. B.I. Bugade 136. Mrs.P.P. Kamat 137. Mrs.S.T. Kamat 138. Mrs.N.A. Sawant 139. P.P. Kharnekar (Applicant Nos.135 to 139 are working as Senior TOA in Sindhudurg). 140. P.V. Cheche 141. K.R. Shahane 142. D.S. Tupsamurde 143. S.L. Tadwalkar (Applicants nos.140 to 143 are working as Senior TOA under General Manager (T), Solapur.) 144. Miss Vijaya P. Umap working as Senior TOA under General Manager (T),Akola. 145. Zagade Shivaji Nagorao working as Senior TOA under General Manager (T), Nanded. 146. Joshi Shukhada ShyamSenior TOA under General Manager (T), Chandrapur. ... Respondents (By Advocate Shri V.S.Masurkar) ...For Respondent nos.1&2 (By Advocate Shri R. Ramamurthy ...For Respondent nos.3 to 5 9 T.A. No. 07/2009 ORDER (Oral) Per: Justice A.K.Basheer, Member (J)
This Transferred Application was filed by the two applicants herein before the High Court at Bombay in the year 2003, with the primary grievance that the official-respondents had unjustifiably refused to apply the norms of relaxation to the candidates who appeared in the Departmental Competitive Examination held in the year 1999 for promotion the post of Junior Telecom Officer against 15% departmental quota.
2. The Departmental Competitive Examination was initially held on 15th & 16th May, 1999 to fill up the 223 vacancies which were notified. However, the said examination was cancelled and it was thereafter held on 17th & 18th June, 2000.
3. Applicants had participated in the said examination, results of which were published on December 6, 2000. Only 89 candidates qualified in the examination. Later, in September, 2001, another Departmental Competitive Examination was held for the vacancies that were available till August 31, 1999. In this examination, 710 candidates participated; but only 29 candidates were found to have qualified for promotion.
10 T.A. No. 07/20094. On March, 10, 2003 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (for short 'BSNL') had issued an order prescribing certain relaxation in the eligibility criteria to qualify for promotion in the competitive examination with a view to reduce the number of unfilled vacancies. It was noticed by the authorities that large number of vacancies could not be filled since the number of candidates who qualified in the examination was comparatively very low. Therefore, it was decided that relaxed standards may be applied for filling up the posts of Junior Telecom Officers against the 15% departmental quota. Relevant clauses of the above order at Exhibit-'D' dated March 10, 2003 are extracted hereunder.
(i) The condition for obtaining minimum qualifying standards in each subject will be dispensed with.
(ii) The merit list will be prepared on the basis of the aggregate marks obtained in all four subjects by the candidates.
(iii) The required minimum aggregate marks in all four subjects will be 30% for OC candidates and 20% for SC/ST candidates. However, in respect of results which have been finalized between 27th July, 1997 and 3rd October, 2000 there would be no separate standards for SC/ST candidates and 30% will be uniformly applied to all candidates.
(iv) The above relaxation would be applied to either of the two examination i.e The examination held in the year 1999 11 T.A. No. 07/2009 or in the year 2000 whichever was later.
In short, the relaxation will not be applicable to both the examination where the examination has been held in both the years but will be applicable to the last examination held in a circle under 15% quota and shall not be a precedent for any future examination. (Emphasis supplied by us)
5. Clause (iv) in the above order which is relevant for adjudication of this case stipulated that the above relaxation would be applied to either of the two examinations viz. the examination held in the year 1999 or in the year 2000 whichever was later.
6. As has been noticed already, the examination held in the year May, 1999 was cancelled because of leakage of question paper. The said examination was held again in June, 2000. It is not in dispute that the applicants had participated in the said examination though they did not qualify.
7. The examination that had to be held in 2000 for the relevant recruitment year in the Maharashtra Circle was held only in September, 2001. But the applicants did not participate in this examination. Their grievance is that the decision of the authorities to apply the norms of relaxation only for the year 2000 (which was 12 T.A. No. 07/2009 actually held in 2001) is highly discriminatory. According to the applicants the relaxed norms should have been applied for the year 1999 as well. However, as has been noticed already Sub clause
(iv) of the above order issued by the BSNL had made it specifically clear that the relaxation will be applied to either of the two examinations only viz. The examination held either in the year 1999 or in the year 2000 whichever was later.
8. It was made further clear that relaxation would not be applicable to both the examinations. Therefore, the applicants, in our view, cannot be heard to say that the decision is either arbitrary or discriminatory.
9. The applicants have made a further prayer to quash the order at Exhibit-E, issued by the BSNL dated May 13, 2003 on the plea that it is highly discriminatory. By this order the authorities had made it clear that since the examination in Maharashtra Circle which ought to have been held in the year 2000 could be held only in September, 2001, the norms of relaxation would be applicable in the case of the examination held in September, 2001. Obviously, this order was only clarificatory in nature by which, the earlier order at Exhibit-D 13 T.A. No. 07/2009 dated March 10, 2003 had been further explained by saying that the norms of relaxation would be applicable only for the examination held in September, 2001 which in fact ought to have been held in the year 2000. In that view of the matter, the challenge raised against this communication/order is wholly mis-conceived and untenable.
10. The same issue was considered by the Bombay High Court in Writ Petition No.858/04 (Smt.Rashmi Kishan Sharma Vs. Union of India & others). But the Writ Petition was dismissed by the High Court by its Order dated July 1, 2004. Similarly, the Punjab & Haryana High Court had also dismissed a similar Writ Petition bearing No.4624/2009 (Sangita Lakhanpal & another Vs. BSNL and others) filed by two departmental candidates who had in fact participated in the departmental Competitive Examination. Facts in the latter case are almost identical to the facts available in this Transferred Application.
11. As has been noticed already, the applicants had not participated in the examination held in the year 2001. The norms of relaxation were applied only for the said examination, since 14 T.A. No. 07/2009 it was at a later point of time. This is totally in accordance with clause (iv) of Exhibit 'D'. Therefore, applicants cannot be heard to say that the above clause is discriminatory or arbitrary.
12. There is yet another aspect of the matter. In the examination held in the year 1999, 89 candidates had qualified for promotion. But in 2001, only 29 candidates had qualified. Therefore, the decision of the respondents is quite rational and justifiable.
13. Having considered the entire materials available on record, we have no hesitation to hold that the contentions raised by the applicants are totally mis-conceived and unsustainable. There is no merit in any of the contentions raised by the applicants.
14. The Transferred Application fails and it is accordingly dismissed. The parties shall bear their own costs.
(R.C.Joshi) (Justice A.K.Basheer) Member (A) Member (J) mf