Central Administrative Tribunal - Delhi
Sudhir Kumar Singh vs National Technical Research ... on 26 September, 2016
Central Administrative Tribunal
Principal Bench, New Delhi
O.A. No.2545/2015
Order reserved on 21st September 2016
Order pronounced on 26th September 2016
Hon'ble Mr. A.K. Patnaik, Member (J)
Hon'ble Mr. K.N. Shrivastava, Member (A)
1. Sudhir Kumar Singh s/o Shri Brahmadeo Pd. Singh
50 years (Monitor)
F/397-B, Adarsh Enclave
Phase-6, Aya Nagar
New Delhi - 47
2. Sachin Mittal s/o Mr. R K Mittal
39 years (Monitor)
I-3121, Shastri Nagar
Meerut (UP)
3. Shashi Kant Dubey
38 years (Monitor)
s/o Mr. Parmarth Dubey
Plot No.1, Bhati Building
MCD School Lane
Near Metro Pillar No.137
Ghitorni, MG Road, New Delhi
4. Irfan Musanna s/o Mr. M Musanna
46 years (Editor)
First Floor, 143/9, Kishanganj
Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-70
5. Mohd. Aizaz Qureshi
47 years (Monitor)
s/o Mr. Moizuddin Qureshi
25, Brijpuri Extn., Street No.9
Delhi - 51
6. Ezaz Alam s/o Muzaffar Alam
40 years (Monitor)
c/o Anil Kumar Singh
Room No.S-3
House No.133A/9, Kishangarh
New Delhi - 70
7. Gajender Singh
31 years (Typist)
2
s/o late Mr. Vijender Pal Singh
H.No.66, Krishan Kunj, Extn. -1
Laxmi Nagar, Delhi - 92
8. Rakesh Kumar s/o Raghu Nath Thakur
39 years (Monitor)
R-114 A, Gali No.3
Ramesh Park, Laxmi Nagar
Delhi - 92
9. Kamal Narayan Patel s/o Rama Shankar Patel
42 years (Monitor)
412, C-2, Phase 4
Aya Nagar, New Delhi 47
10. Moh. Abbu Salim s/o S K Latifur Rahman
43 years (Monitor)
r/o 352D 2/T, Deep Niwas
Munirka Village
New Delhi - 67
11. Abhash Kumar s/o late Mr. B S P Pathak
47 years (Monitor)
H.No.3, Block 2
Spring Field Colony
Sector 31, Faridabad (Haryana)
12. Mohd. Akmal Khan s/o late Nasrullah Khan
42 years (Monitor)
House No.343/90A Street No.12
Ghaffar Manzil Jamia Nagar
Okhla, New Delhi - 25
13. Sanjeev Srivastava s/o Mr. Roshan Lal Srivastava
42 years (Monitor)
83-A, D2, DDA Flats, Old Kondly,
Mahur VIhar, Ph-3, Delhi - 96
14. Vandna Rai d/o late Mr. M P Rai
47 years (Monitor)
P-1 Antriksh
Kaushambi, Ghaziabad (UP)
15. Shalini Jatwal d/o Jai Bhagwan
30 years (Monitor)
C-603, Plot No.9
Upkari Apartment
Sector 12, Dwarka, New Delhi
16. Trina Bhattacharya d/o Suraj Kumar Lahiri
48 years (Monitor)
3
206/5, Sector 1
Pushp Vihar, New Delhi - 17
17. Pravin Kumar Prabhat s/o Asmanand Prasad Singh
37 years (Monitor)
Plot No.210, 3rd Floor
89/9, Kishangarh, Sahara Apartment
Vasantkunj, New Delhi-70
18. Rajni Mehandiratta
39 years (Monitor)
d/o Trilok Chand Mehandiratta
D-2, 708, Uppalgade
Sec 86, Faridabad (Haryana)
19. Prabuddha Neogi s/o Krishnarpita Chakraborty Neogi
38 years (Monitor)
AC-175, Sec 2, Salt Lake City
Kolkata - 700091 (WB)
20. Arka Mondal s/o Hemanta Mondal
28 years (Monitor)
Balagarh Main Road
Hoogly-72103 (WB)
21. Alokparna Basu d/o Dilip Basu
42 years (Monitor)
Plot No.404, Milan Bhawan
115, Subhashnagar Road
4th Bylane
Kolkata - 700065 (WB)
22. Sharngrav Mitter s/o late Mr. Sankar Mitter
33 years (Monitor)
66, Subhasini Ganguly
Sarani, Kolkata (WB)
23. Mirnal Kanta Das s/o Premananda Das
34 years (Editor)
C-4, Hanif Apartment
Gadaipur, Chhatar Pur
Opposite Allahabad Bank
New Delhi - 30
24. Gurukalyana Rout s/o Gagan Bihari Rout
36 years (Editor)
10, H.No.58A, J K House
Munirka Village, New Delhi - 67
25. Somnath Das s/o Ajit Kumar Das
36 years (Monitor)
4
83, Seemant Vihar Apartments
Kaushambi, Ghaziabad (UP)
26. Abani Mohan Chakraborty
53 years (Typist)
s/o late Bhupesh Chakraborty
Malati Kunj, Padmabati Colony
Baidyabati,
Hoogly - 712222 (WB)
27. Biswadeep Das s/o late Sourindra Mohan Das
33 years (Monitor)
76C, Raimohan Banerjee Road
Kolkata - 700108
..Applicants
(Mr. Parinav Gupta, Advocate)
Versus
1. Union of India
through its Secretary/Chairman,
National Technical Research Organization
Block III, Old JNU Campus
New Delhi - 67
2. Mrinal Banerjee
OSD, Field Research Unit-Kolkata
CFOG-NTRO
234, AJC Bose Road
1st MSO Building, 7th Floor
Nizam Palace,
Kolkata. Pin: 700 020
..Respondents
(Mr. Gyanendra Singh, Advocate)
ORDER
Mr. K.N. Shrivastava:
This O.A. has been filed under 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985. The applicants have prayed for the following main reliefs:
"i. The impugned orders dated 7th May, 2015 (Annexure A-1 & A-2) passed by the Centre Director, CFOG, NTRO may kindly be quashed;
ii. The respondents may kindly be directed to reinstate all the applicants from the date of termination;5
iii. The respondents may kindly be directed to absorb all the applicants in other departments as they have already gained an experience of 5-15 years;
iv. Respondents be directed to grant same pay scale of rupees 80,000/- per month to all the applicants as is being given to others with effect from the date of their employment along with arrears;
v. Cost of the application including the counsel fee may also be allowed to be paid by the Respondents to the extent of Rs.2 lacs with interest; and"
2. Brief facts of the case are that the applicants were engaged intermittently engaged as Casual Monitors/ Editors/ Typists in Centre for Focused OSINT Generation (CFOG), which is a unit of National Technical Research Generation (NTRO). Vide Annexure A-1 and A-2 orders dated 07.05.2015, all Casual Editors/ Monitors/ Typists working in CFOG were de-paneled w.e.f. 07.05.2015 (A/N).
Aggrieved by the impugned Annexure A-1 and A-2 orders, the applicants have filed the instant O.A.
3. Pursuant to the notices issued, the respondents entered appearance and filed their reply. The applicants thereafter filed their rejoinder. With the completion of pleadings, the case was taken up today for hearing the arguments of the parties. Mr. Parinav Gupta, learned counsel for applicants and Mr. Gyanendra Singh, learned counsel for respondents were heard.
4. Without going into the merits of the case, we felt it necessary to consider and deliberate over the jurisdiction, powers and authority of this Tribunal under Section 14 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 (in short "Act") to adjudicate this O.A. Sub-Sections (1) & (2) of Section 14 of the Act read as under:-
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"14. Jurisdiction, powers and authority of the Central Administrative Tribunal.-
(1) Save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, the Central Administrative Tribunal shall exercise, on and from the appointed day, all the jurisdiction, powers and authority exercisable immediately before that day by all courts (except the Supreme Court in relation to-
(a) recruitment, and matters concerning recruitment, to any All-
India Service or to any civil service of the Union or a civil post under the Union or to a post connected with defence or in the defence service, being, in either case, a post filled by a civilian;
(b) all service matters concerning-
(i) a member of any All-India Service; or
(ii) a person [not being a member of an All-India Service or a person referred to in clause (c)] appointed to any civil service of the Union or any civil post under the Union; or
(iii) a civilian [not being a member of an All-India Service or a person referred in clause (c) ] appointed to any defence services or a post connected with defence, and pertaining to the service of such member, person or civilian, in connection with the affairs of the Union or of any State or of any local or other authority within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India or of any corporation [or society] owned or controlled by the Government;
(c) all service matters pertaining to service in connection with the affairs of the Union concerning a person appointed to any service or post referred to in sub-clause (ii) or sub-clause (iii) of clause (b), being a person whose services have been placed by a State Government or any local or other authority or any corporation [or society] or other body, at the disposal of the Central Government for such appointment.
[Explanation - for the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that references to "Union" in this sub-section shall be construed as including references also to a Union territory.] (2) The Central Government may, by notification, apply with effect from such date as may be specified in the notification the provisions of sub-section (3) to local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India and to corporations [or societies] owned or controlled by Government, not being a local or other authority or corporation [or society] controller or owned by a State Government."
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5. As is evident from the records, the applicants were being engaged as Casual Editors/ Monitors/ Typists. They were not holding any civil post as such. As a matter of fact, the respondents had prepared a panel of Casual Editors/ Monitors/ Typists. The persons empanelled therein were required to sign an agreement in the format prescribed at Annexure R-1, which stipulated the following conditions:-
"Conditions
1. In the event of a signed acceptance, not being received by the date stated, the Centre Director, CFOG, NTRO reserves the right to withdraw the assignment letter.
2. For the approved Monitors/Editors/Typists/Library work etc. assignee will be entitled to the fee as stipulated in the letter of offer. It is to be clearly understood that if the related work is not found satisfactory the assignee will not be entitled to any fee.
3. The Centre Director, CFOG, NTRO shall have the right to terminate the contract at any time subject only to payment of a fee in proportion to the work already done on the date of termination. The decision of the Centre Director to proportionate fee payable in such an event shall be final and binding on the assignee.
4. No Casual assignee shall be normally booked for more than 15 days in a calendar month.
5. Number of bookings will depend on the performance of the assignee. In case, the performance/ conduct is found unsatisfactory, the booking may be discontinued without any notice."
6. It is crystal clear from the records that the nature of engagement of the applicants with the respondents was of casual in nature. The reason for de-panelment of the applicants arose due to closure of the Centre, i.e., CFOG w.e.f. 06.05.2015 as per the averments of the respondents in paragraph 5.10 of their reply.
7. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the applicants' engagement with the respondents was not against any civil posts and that they were 8 being engaged on casual basis intermittently. The jurisdiction of this Tribunal, as described in Section 14 of the Act, can be exercised only in matters relating to the service matters of civil posts.
8. In this view of the matter, we are of the opinion that this Tribunal has no jurisdiction to adjudicate the controversy mentioned in the instant O.A. Hence, the O.A. is dismissed on the ground of jurisdiction, with liberty to the applicants to seek remedy at an appropriate forum in accordance with law. No order as to costs.
( K.N. Shrivastava ) ( A.K. Patnaik ) Member (A) Member (J) /sunil/