Central Administrative Tribunal - Bangalore
Sarala B vs Bharat Sanchal Nigam Limited on 9 August, 2018
(O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 1
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL
BANGALORE BENCH, BENGALURU
ORIGINAL APPLICATION NO.170/00291/2017
TODAY, THIS THE 9th DAY OF AUGUST, 2018
HON'BLE DR.K.B.SURESH, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE SHRI DINESH SHARMA, ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBER
1. Smt.B.Sarala,
Aged 53 yers,
W/o V.Thyagaraj,
Senior Section Supervisor,
BSNL, O/o Chief General Manager Telecom,
No.1, S.V.Rao, Halasuru,
Bengaluru - 560 008.
2. Sri Gavisiddappa Sanganal,
Aged 56 years,
S/o Sri Puttappa Sanganal,
Senior Telephone Supervisor (O)[O/S(P)],
BSNL, O/o SDE (Groups) Mundargi,
Gadag District : 582 118.
3. Smt.Neelambika M.Kambi,
Aged 59 years,
W/o Sri Mallikarjun,
Senior Section Supervisor,
BSNL, Telephone Exchange,
Bagalkot: 587 101.
4. Sri Syed Akbar Hussaini,
Aged 59 years,
S/o Sri.Syed Abdul Ali,
Office Superintendent (P),
O/o GM Telecome BSNL,
Hyderabad Road,
Raichur: 584 102.
5. Sri Gangadharaiah K.H.,
Aged 55 years,
S/o Late Sri. Karehanumappa,
Assistant Office Superintendent,
O/o SDE Malleshwaram TD/MDF,
BSNL Margosa Road,
Malleshwaram Telephone Exchange,
Bengaluru - 560 055.
6. Smt.Jayalaxmi D.Mahindrakar,
Aged 54 years,
W/o Sri Dhanyakumar S. Mahindrakar,
Office Superintendent (P),
BSNL, O/o SDE, DTO In-Charge,
Gadag: 582 103.
(O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 2
7. Smt.Shyalaja H.N.,
Aged 49 years,
W/o Sri R.S.Venkatesh,
Assistant Office Superintendent (Phones),
Mysuru Road Customer Service Centre,
Mysuru Road Telephone Exchange,
Bengaluru - 560 026.
8. Smt. Kaveramma,
Aged 57 years,
W/o Sri S.Raghavendra Aithal,
Office Superintendent (Phones),
O/o SDE Phones (External) Puttur,
D.K.District - 574 201.
9. Sri Kumar P.R.,
Aged 59 years,
S/o Sri Pandurange Gowda,
Office Superintendent (General),
O/o Commercial Officer S.W.,
BSNL, Banashankari II Stage,
Bengaluru-560 070.
10. Smt.Sujatha Munavalli,
Aged 57 years,
W/o Sri Ishwar,
Office Superintendent,
O/o G.M.Telecome BSNL,
Hubli 580 020.
11. Sri Mallikarjun P.Betageri,
Aged 55 years,
S/o Sri P.Betageri,
Senior TOA (P),
O/o SDE Phones BSNL,
Ramdurga 591123,
Belagavi District.
12. Smt.Shylaja C.,
Aged 54 years,
W/o Sri R.Basavarajaiah,
Assistant Office Superintendent (General),
O/o SDE, (Commercial), BSNL,
Gubbi - 572216,
Tumkur District.
13. Smt. Dakshayaini N.Deshpande,
Aged 58 years,
W/o Sri Narayan G.Deshpande,
Office Superintendent,
O/o SDO (Phones) (IV), BSNL,
Vidyanagar, Hubli-580 021.
(O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 3
14. Sri Channappa V.Badiger,
Aged 57 years,
S/o Sri Veeerabhadrappa Badiger,
Office Superintendnet (Phones),
O/o SDE (Groups), BSNL,
Gangavathi - 583 227,
Koppal District.
15. Sri R.Ananda,
Aged 60 years,
S/o Sri Oddorangappa,
Office Superintendent,
O/o SDE CSC, BSNL,
Customer Service Centre Plaza,
Mandipet, Davangere-577 501.
16. Sri Gururaj R.Mannur,
Aged 55 years,
S/o Sri Ramachandra N.Mannur,
Office Superintendent (P),
O/o SDE (Groups), BSNL,
Telephone Exchange Building,
Basaveshwara Circle,
Athani-591304,
Belgaum District.
17. Smt. Sheela Bai L.,
Aged 57 years,
W/o Sri H..V.Sudheendra Murthy,
Office Superintendent,
BSNL, Telephone Exchange Yelahanka,
Bengaluru-560 064.
18. Sri K.A.Umesh,
Aged 54 years,
S/o Sri K.C.Aswathanarayana,
Assistant Office Superintendent,
O/o SDE (Indoor) BSNL,
Shankarapuram Telephone Exchange,
B.T.Road, Bengaluru-560 019.
19. Smt.Indira Devi U.,
Aged 57 years,
W/o Sri Umeshkumar Shrivastava,
Office Superintendent (Phones),
BSNL, Customer Service Centre Koramangala,
No.3, I floor, BDA Complex,
3rd Block Koramangala,
Bengaluru - 560 034.
20. Smt. K.L.Shobha,
Aged 55 years,
W/o Sri S.Xavier,
Office Superintendent,
Vimanapura customer Service Centre,
BSNL, Vimanapura Telephone Exchange,
Bengaluru-560 017.
(O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 4
21. Sri Nagaraju G.S.,
Aged 54 years,
S/o Sri Siddappa,
Assistant office Superintendent,
O/o SDE, TD&MDF, BSNL,
Vijayanagar Telephone Exchange,
Bengaluru-560 040.
22. Smt.Shantha Lakshmikanth,
Aged 56 years,
W/o Sri Lakshmikanth,
Office Superintendent,
Customer Service Centre BSNL,
Margosa Road,
Malleshwaram,
Bengaluru-560 055.
23. Smt. Mallika T.,
Aged 54 years,
W/o Sri Radhakrishna K.,
Office Superintendent (P),
Chennammanakere I/D,
BSNL, BGTD, Bengaluru-560 085.
24. Smt.Veena S.Honnalli,
Aged 52 years,
W/o Sri G.B.Kudri,
Assistant Office Superintendent (Phones),
O/o Deputy General Manager (Mobile Services),
Type-V, BSNL Quarters, Aravindnagar,
Old Hubli-580 024.
25. Smt.Sudha A,
Aged 57 years,
W/o Sri H.K.Manurajan,
Office Superintendent,
BSNL, Customer Service Centre,
Vidyaranyapura,
Bengaluru-560097.
26. Sri M.S.Srinivas Murthy,
Aged 54 years,
S/o late M.K.Surappa,
Then Telecom Mechanic,
Presently working as Junior Engineer
(formerly known as TTA),
BSNL, O/o SDE (Outdoor),
KSLO Exchange, Kumaraswamy Layout,
Bengaluru -560 076.
27. Smt. Pokala Kanakadurga,
Aged 53 years,
W/o Sri Krishnamurthy,
Office Superintendent (on leave),
BSNL, O/o SDE Indoor MDF,
Vimanapura Exchange,
Bengaluru-560017.
(O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 5
28. Smt. Manjula V.N.,
Aged 55 years,
W/o Sri Krishna Murthy B.S.,
Office superintendent,
BSNL, O/o SDE Jalahalli (OD & Cable),
Jalahalli, Bengaluru - 560 013.
... Applicants
(By Advocate Shri P.A.Kulkarni for applicants)
Vs.
1. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited,
By its Chairman and Managing Director,
Corporate Office (Personnel-II Section),
Bharat Sanchar Bhawan,
4th Floor, Janpath,
New Delhi - 110 001.
2. The Chief General Manager Telecom,
Karnataka Telecom Circle, BSNL,
No.1, S.V.Road, Halasuru,
Bengaluru-560 008.
3. The Department of Telecommunications,
To be represented by its Secretary,
Sanchar Bhavan,
20 Ashoka road,
New Delhi -110 001.
...Respondents
(By Standing counsel Shri Vishnu Bhat for respondents-1&2 and Shri M.Rajakumar for
Respondent-3)
ORDER
Hon'ble Shri Dinesh Sharma, Administrative Member The facts of the case, in brief, are as follows :
2. The applicants had applied for Departmental Competitive Examination for promotion to the cadre of Junior Telecom Officer (JTO, for short) for the vacancies of the year 1999 and part of 2000 (15% quota) which were held in Karnataka Telecom Circle on 16th and 17th September, 2000. The claim of the applicants is that the vacancies were wrongly determined as 54+6 under OC category, while actual vacancies, which they came to realise through an RTI query in 2017, were 130+21. The applicants want them to be immediately promoted to the cadre of JTO by adopting this later discovered (O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 6 number as the available vacancies in 2000. They also want relaxation in the percentage of marks that was allowed under a Circular dated 20 th March, 2003 (Annexure A-5) which was issued in order to fill some unfilled available vacancies at that point of time.
3. The respondents have denied the claim of the applicants. They have raised issue of limitation and sought rejection of application on this ground alone since there is not even an application for condonation of delay. The respondents have categorically stated that all the vacancies that were determined at that time, upto 31.08.1999, were filled following the examination held in 2000. Even disputes relating to available unfilled vacancies were settled following orders from CAT / Hon'ble High Courts. After 2000, examination for filling these posts (under 15% quota) was held in 2013 in which all the vacancies that had remained unfilled till then were notified. Some of the applicants had also appeared in this examination held in 2013 but did not qualify.
The applicants, therefore, do not deserve any relief.
4. The case was heard. The written arguments filed from both the sides were also taken on record. After going through the pleadings and arguments of both the sides, it is clear that the main issues to be decided in this case are : (a) whether this matter is barred by limitation; (b) if not so, whether the vacancies relevant to the examination conducted in the year 2000 were 54+6 (as it was then determined) or 130+21 (as was informed in reply to a RTI query in 2017) and (c) if the latter is true, whether the applicants can now be promoted to these vacancies on the basis of a relaxed criteria (of 2003) applied on their performance in the examination conducted in 2000.
5. It is clear that when the examination was held in the year 2000, the number of vacancies was indicated though not before, but at the time when the results were declared. It, apparently, did not occur to the applicants at any time, since the year 2000 till the year 2017, that there was any mistake in the determination of vacancies. They had not raised this issue even in the year 2013 when the next examination to fill the quota under the same rule was held. The fact that they appeared in this examination (O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 7 also shows that they had no such claim about their being already eligible for selection in an examination in which they had appeared 13 years earlier. Thus the claim of the applicants now is clearly much delayed, suffers from laches and is clearly barred by period of limitation, for which they have neither given nor seem to have any reasonable ground for condonation.
6. However, even if the matter was to be examined on merits, it is not disputed either by the applicant or the respondents that the number of vacancies was not in question till what was informed by way of a reply to an RTI query vide Annexure A-21 dated 14.03.2017. The relevant portion of this reply is quoted below :-
"3. Part of No.2, 3 and 15 regarding yearwise vacancies for the year 1997 to 2001, break up for JTO vacancies as available as on 31.3.2000 to 31.3.2002 under 15% Q and 35% Q is furnished below. JTO vacancies details prior to the above mentioned period is not available in this office. JTO vacancies are calculated as per the guidelines issued by BSNL Corporate office from time to time.
Sl. JTO 15% quota 35% quota
No vacancy
as on
Total OC SC ST Total OC SC ST
1. 31.3.2000 167 130 25 12 388 301 58 29
2. 31.3.2001 27 21 4 2 64 49 10 5
3. 31.3.2002 23 17 4 2 55 43 8 4"
The argument of the applicants is that the vacancies shown (in this Annexure A-21) were the vacancies relevant for the examination held in the year 2000. In support of their claim, they have produced Annexure A-23 dated 9.3.2013 wherein a clarification has been given by the BSNL Corporate Office about how the vacancy year is to be interpreted. The respondents, on the other hand, have alleged that the vacancies relevant for the examination held in 2000 were only those which arose upto August, 1999, since the Recruitment Rules were changed with effect from 1 st September, 1999. Annexure A-21 is apparently not a reply given in the context of the examination held in the year 2000. It appears that the applicants were on a fishing expedition when they raised the request under the RTI and have interpreted the reply to suit their claim. There is nothing in Annexure A-21 which can lead to a definite conclusion that the (O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 8 vacancies mentioned there are with reference to the examination held in 2000 and, therefore, any presumption to that effect will be wrong.
7. This brings us to the (c) part of the issues (mentioned in para 4 above) about whether, even if it is found out in 2017 that more vacancies were available in 2000 can the applicants be declared successful for filling those vacancies in 2018 on the basis of an examination conducted in the year 2000 with relaxed criteria of 2003. This is apparently stretching a logic too far. Even if the posts can be considered to be vacant at that time, the suitability of the applicants to hold these posts now cannot be based on an event which was held almost two decades earlier. Some of the applicants were not found upto the mark when the examination for the same quota of posts was held only about five years back. Hence it will be a travesty of justice if the applicants were given promotions on the basis of an examination held 18 years back. The fact that the applicants have not asked for promotion from a back date to these "vacancies", shows that they are aware of the frivolousness of their own claim.
7. The O.A having no merit is, therefore, dismissed. No order as to costs.
(DINESH SHARMA) (DR. K.B. SURESH)
ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBER JUDICIAL MEMBER
Cvr.
Annexures referred to by the applicant :
Annexure-A1: Copy of the notification dated 10.03.2000 issued by R2
Annexure-A2: Copy of the JTO Recruitment Rules 1996
Annexure-A3: Copy of the revised time table notified by R2 on 06.06.2000
Annexure-A4: Copy of the notification dated 22/23.03.2001
Annexure-A5: Copy of the BSNL corporate office order dated 10.03.2003
Annexure-A6: Copy of the reply dated 8.12.2003 given to Smt. K.R. Usha
Annexure-A7: Copy of the order dated 21.3.2014 in TA No. 409/2009
Annexure-A8: Copy of the reply statement filed by the administration in the
above TA.
(O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 9
Annexure-A9: Copy of the affidavit filed by Shri G. Prakash Rao in the above
TA
Annexure-A10: Copy of the supplementary result sheet dated 21.12.2004 Annexure-A11: Copy of the 1999 JTO Recruitment Rules Annexure-A12: Copy of the 2001 JTO Recruitment Rules Annexure-A13: Copy of the letter dated 08.10.2004 from R2 to BSNL Corporate Office Annexure-A14: Copy of the notification dated 4.12.2013 Annexure-A15: Copy of the reply dated 26.11.2015 Annexure-A16: Copy of the representation dated 8.9.2015 submitted by applicant No.5 Annexure-A17: Copy of one more representation dated 16.11.2015 submitted by applicant No.5 Annexure-A18: Copy of the communication dated 30.06.2016 Annexure-A19: Copy of the reply dated 23.08.2016 from Corporate Office Annexure-A20: Copy of the RTI application dated 22.02.2017 Annexure-A21: Copy of the information furnished to the applicant No. 5 on 14.03.2017 Annexure-A22: Copy of the letter dated 13.02.2017 from R2 Annexure-A23: Copy of the clarification dated 09.03.2013 issued by BSNL Corporate Office, New Delhi Annexure-A24: Copy of the BSNL Corporate Office circular dated 04.05.2017 Annexure-A25: Copy of the DOPT OM dated 19.01.2007 Annexure-A26: Copy of the ruling of the Hon'ble Supreme Court reported in 1983 3 SCC 284 in Y.V. Rangaiah's case.
Annexures with reply statement:
Annexure-R1: Copy of the order passed in CCC 100335/2014 (O.A. No. 170/00291/2017 - Bangalore Bench ) 10