Supreme Court - Daily Orders
H.P.Gupta vs Union Of India . on 4 February, 2016
Bench: Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, C. Nagappan
ITEM NO.107 COURT NO.6 SECTION XI
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Civil Appeal No. 8649/2009
H.P.GUPTA Appellant(s)
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s)
(Wwith office report)
Date : 04/02/2016 This appeal was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE FAKKIR MOHAMED IBRAHIM KALIFULLA
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE C. NAGAPPAN
For Appellant(s)
Mr. Anurag Kishore, A.O.R.
For Respondent(s)
UPON hearing counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
The appeal is dismissed in terms of the signed order.
[KALYANI GUPTA] [SHARDA KAPOOR]
COURT MASTER COURT MASTER
[SIGNED ORDER IS PLACED ON THE FILE.] Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by Sanjay Kumar Date: 2016.02.13 12:43:30 IST Reason: IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPEAL NO. 8649 OF 2009 H.P. GUPTA ….. APPELLANT VERSUS UNION OF INDIA & ORS. ….. RESPONDENTS O R D E R Counsel for the respondent though was present on the previous occasion hearing is not represented today when the matter was taken up for hearing.
2. Heard Mr. Anurag Kishore, learned counsel for the appellant.
3. The only grievance of the appellant related to non-grant of Lower Selection Grade promotion even after he successfully cleared the competitive examination after ten years of his service as Sorter Assistant in the Accounts Department of Railway Mail Service Gorakhpur as per the Scheme prevalent. He joined as Sorter Assistant in the year 1963. While working in the C.A. No. 8649 of 2009 said department, wherein he appeared in the departmental examination meant for Assistant Accountants in the year 1970 which enabled him to get a special pay of Rs. 25/- in the year 1974. The Scheme for promotion to the Lower Selection Grade was introduced under which 20 per cent selection was to be made for those who cleared the examination and who are in the clerical grade.
4. The appellant was stated to have cleared the examination in the year 1972. As he was not granted promotion of lower selection grade, he made a representation. Subsequently, an order was passed in the case of the appellant by the Chief Post Master on 11th October, 1991 giving reason as to why he could not be considered for the grant of lower Selection Grade in the year 1976.
5. Thereafter when his representation was also rejected on 6th March, 1995, the appellant approached the Tribunal seeking for the grant of Lower Selection Grade promotion. The Tribunal held that the appellant was not eligible for being considered for the grant of promotion in the year 1976 as he did not belong to the General Line which is the relevant criteria as per Rule 272A(ii) PAGE NO.2 OF 5 C.A. No. 8649 of 2009 of the Rules.
6. By the impugned order, the Division Bench also declined to interfere with the order of the Tribunal. The relevant Rule has been noted by the High Court in the impugned judgment.
7. We also perused the order of the Chief Post Master dated 6th March, 1995. It will be useful to refer to paragraphs 5.1 and 5.3 of the said order for our present purpose which are as under:-
“5.1 While it is true that Shri Gupta had qualified in 1/3rd LSG quota examination held on 30.11.1975 against the vacancies of RMS 'Accounts Line' of Uttar Pradesh Circle, his further selection was to be regulated according to the vacancies in LSG Accounts Line. His name unfortunately, did not come in the selection zone of 5 times of the vacancies and he could not therefore be considered. There was a single vacancy in 1/3rd quota of accounts wing of RMS In Uttar Pradesh Circle against which the names of 5 qualified officials who were senior to him were considered and one of them viz. Shri Damodar was selected as stated in para 3.1 of the brief. Similarly, another official viz. Shri Jagdish Prasad Pandey, who was also senior to him, was appointed against another vacancy of 1/3rd quota of accounts wing of RMS in the Circle vide order dated 04.05.1982.” 5.3 Besides, the representationist Shri Gupta remained under suspension from 14.08.1981 to 31.08.1987 and 3 disciplinary cases initiated against him ended in PAGE NO.3 OF 5 C.A. No. 8649 of 2009 imposition of relatives. He was considered for promotion to LSG cadre under time bound one promotion scheme and was given promotion to LSG cadre with effect from 14.09.1989 when he was considered fit for promotion after as over all assessment of his record of service as per the prescribed procedure. Thus the claim of the applicant for promotion to LSG cadre from an earlier date with reference to the date of promotion of general line officials is not relevant and tenable since he belongs to the accounts line.” A reading of the above paragraphs disclose that there was a clear demarcation as between the General Line and the Accounts Line. Indisputably, Rule 272A(i) and 272A(ii) are applicable only to those who are in the General Line. The order of the Chief Post Master as well as the conclusion of the Tribunal disclose that the appellant belonged to the Accounts Line.
8. In the said circumstances, simply because he was allowed to appear in the examination in the year 1976 for the purpose of grant of Lower Selection Grade, the appellant cannot claim promotion to the stage of Lower Selection Grade competing along with the other General Line employees. Since there was a clear demarcation between the General Line and the Accounts Line, existing in the respondent-department, we are convinced that the conclusion drawn by the Tribunal as well as the PAGE NO.4 OF 5 C.A. No. 8649 of 2009 affirmation of the same by the High Court, cannot be found fault with.
The appeal fails and is, accordingly, dismissed.
…...................................J [FAKKIR MOHAMED IBRAHIM KALIFULLA] …...................................J [C. NAGAPPAN] NEW DELHI FEBRUARY 04, 2016 PAGE NO.5 OF 5