Central Administrative Tribunal - Hyderabad
D Srinivasa Vara Prasad vs M/O Agriculture on 30 January, 2024
1
OA.No.1410/2015
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL
HYDERABAD BENCH, HYDERABAD
ORIGINAL APPLICATION NO.020/01410/2015
ORDER RESERVED ON 09.11.2023
DATE OF ORDER: 30.01.2024
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. SUDHI RANJAN MISHRA, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE MRS. SHALINI MISRA, ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBER
D.Srinivasa Vara Prasad
S/o Padmanabhaiah
Aged about 42 years
Occ: Senior Technician
Southern Region Farm Machinery
Training and Testing Institute
(S.R.F.M.T. and T.I.), Garladinne
Ananthapur District. .....Applicant
(By Advocate Sri M.Venkanna)
Vs.
1. The Union of India represented by
its Secretary, Government of India
Ministry of Agriculture
Department of Agriculture & Cooperation
Mechanization & Technology Division
Krishi Bhawan,, New Delhi - 110001.
2. The Director
Southern Region Farm Machinery
Training and Testing Institute
(S.R.F.M.T. and T.I.)
Garla Dinne, Ananthapur District. ....Respondents
(By Advocate Sri V.Vinod Kumar, Sr. Panel Counsel for Central Government)
ORDER
PER: HON'BLE MRS. SHALINI MISRA, ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBER
1. The present Original Application has been filed by the applicant under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 seeking therein the following relief:
2OA.No.1410/2015
"To quash and set aside the impugned proposal for filling up of the departmental promote quota of 3 Technical assistants vide Memo No.12- 14/2015 - M & T (Admn.) dated 03.09.2015 being illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the recruitment rules and consequently declare the action of the respondents is violative of Article 14 and 16 of Constitution of India and restore the original seniority list prior to the combined seniority list dated 01.01.2015 in pursuance of the new recruitment rules and be pleased to pass such order or orders as this Hon'ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper to the circumstances of the case."
2. The brief facts of the case as pleaded by the applicant are that the applicant was initially appointed as Tube Well Operator(now known as Technician) on 20.02.1997 with Grade Pay of Rs.1900/- in the pay Band of Rs.5200-20200. Being succeeded in the selection process conducted to the post of Senior Technician, the applicant got appointed as Senior Technician with Grade Pay of Rs.2400 of PB-1 on 18.06.2009. He was at Sl.No.3 in the seniority list prepared as on 01.01.2012 in the cadre of Senior Technician originally consisting of 5 officials and 1 more Sr.Technician is added by way of nomenclating Electrician Grade I to that of Sr.Technician and thus the said post has been added to the cadre strength and the employee holding the said post of Electrician Grade I who assumed the status of Sr.Technician will be placed in the common seniority list whereby the original seniority list consisting of 5 employees would undergo change in terms of replacement of seniority. On receipt of the restructured/common nomenclature proceedings dated 02.04.2013, the applicant made a representation dated 30.04.2013 whereby he contested the legality and validity of the common nomenclature memo saying that by way of adding Electrician Grade I to the cadre of Senior Technician by way of common nomenclature, the cadre strength is increased from 5 to 6. He has also drawn the attention of the 1st respondent saying that though the other department like the 3 OA.No.1410/2015 CPWD, Railway etc., have also made common designation, but with specific trades i.e. Junior Engineer Civil, Junior Engineer Mechanical, Jr.Engineer Electrical. On the same analogy, it is requested that all the five posts previously existing may have to be designated as Sr.Technician and the one which was redesignated from Electrician Grade I is to be nomenclated as Sr.Technician (Electrical). According to the recruitment rules, the technician with 5 years experience and educational qualification of degree or diploma in agriculture engineering of ITI in Motor Mechanic, Tractor Mechanic, Farm Mechanic, Diesel Mechanic are eligible for the next promotion of Training Assistant now known as Technical Assistant. According to the earlier Recruitment Rules, 2007 dated 13.03.2007, the qualifications for promotion to the cadre of Training Assistant now known as Technical Assistant are, Technician with 5 years of regular service with qualification of degree or diploma in agriculture engineering or ITI Certificate in Motor Mechanic/Tractor Mechanic/Farm Mechanic/ Diesel Mechanic or equivalent with 5 years experience in operation and maintenance of tractor/heavy transport vehicle and should have current driving license of tractor/heavy vehicle. As per the Office order No.1-4/98-Estt. Dated 17.09.2013 issued by the 2nd respondent, wherein the cadre strength with details of the posts is mentioned according to which there are 5 technical assistants, 6 senior technicians including the Electrician Gr.I post that was redesignated as Sr.Technician etc. the 1st respondent vide his Memo dated 25.08.2014 have gone on record to admit that 'the very purpose of amendment of Recruitment Rules was to restructure the entire technical cadre, reduce the number of designations, clubbing of posts with similar pay scale, framing of common Recruitment Rules for all the FMTTIs, while taking into account the 4 OA.No.1410/2015 employees career progression, along with the quality of manpower as well as functional requirement. In the process, the promotional prospects of employees may be effected-adversely for some of them, while providing better scope for some others. However, considering the availability of MACP Scheme, employees are sufficiently taken care of, at least financially, in respect of career progression. Though the posts having similar grade pay are clubbed together with a common designation, the nature of duties performed by them will be as per their trade. The common nomenclature bring similarity in designation, scales, qualification, promotional avenues, method of recruitment of the posts of all the four institutes which are having the same functional requirements so as to have a harmony in all the Institute's Recruitment Rules'. On plain reading of the above communication, it reveals that the respondents have also expressed their apprehensions that some of the employees may be effected adversely and whereas some of them will have a better scope of career prospects. The restructuring of the cadres with common nomenclature should also ensure that the erstwhile cadre should have some significance and separate entity for future avenue of promotions and thus a separate promotional avenue charter is required to be maintained and the restructured cadre will have their own line of promotions. For example, the Electrician Grade I as per the promotional prospects he will be given the promotion of a Foreman as per the recruitment rules. Whereas there is no post of Foreman in the second respondent office, the electrician Grade I post holder compete with the other senior Technicians like the applicant herein for the next promotion post of Technical Assistant. As a result of the said merger, the prospects of the applicant would be affected if the merged employee ranks senior by virtue of his appointment. The 1st respondent 5 OA.No.1410/2015 while restructuring the non technical posts vide his memo dated 07.10.2014 had retained the Group C and Group B non gazetted posts intact without there being any merger though they carry the similar pay band and grade pay and there was only merger of the erstwhile Group D posts nomenclated now as Multi Tasking Staff (Non-Technical). The applicant therefore had a reasonable objection for merging the Technical cadres which is not warranted. The respondents vide their proceedings vide Memo dated 14.12.2012 have granted promotions of training assistants to 4 employees namely DC Bhargavi, V.George Babu, B.V.Ramana and J.Bhon Singh, out of whom Smt.Bhargavi only possessed the qualification of Engineering in Agriculture and whereas all the 3 others have possessed only ITI qualification. According to the impugned recruitment rules, the legitimate right of getting promotion to the cadre of technical assistant is taken away for want of enhanced qualification of diploma in engineering which was not a qualification required of a employee on departmental promotion quota. The applicant vide his reminder representation dated 07.11.2014 had made very detailed account of the adverse effects of the common nomenclature to the various technical posts and also challenged the present impugned recruitment Rules which contemplates higher qualifications for promotion to the cadre of training assistant now called Technical Assistant with an academic qualification of degree or diploma in agricultural engineering with 5 years experience and whereas according to the old recruitment rules, the qualification of ITI in motor mechanic / tractor mechanic / farm mechanic / diesel mechanic with 5 years experience was eligible for promotion to the post of Technical Assistant. It is pertinent to mention that the ITI in the electrician trade was not a qualification at all for promotion to the cadre of technical assistant at any given 6 OA.No.1410/2015 point of time and moreover it falls outside the line of hierarchical promotions right from technician. The revised recruitment rules have taken away the prospects of promotion of the applicant as the qualifications were raised and as per the restructure of different cadres by way of common nomenclature, the applicant apprehends that his legitimate expectations would be affected by inclusion of the other people in the seniority list thereby his next promotion as Technical Assistant is said to be affected. While the things stood so, the first respondent in utter disregard to the legitimate claim of the applicant and also similarly situated persons throughout the 4 institutions, proposes to take up the steps for filling up of the 3 technical assistant posts on the basis of the combined seniority list that emerged in pursuance of the new revised recruitment rules that are under challenge. The proposal of the 1st respondent dated 03.09.2015 i.e. the impugned order is contrary to the legitimate expectation of the applicant and also the recruitment rules applicable to him and therefore the applicant has filed the present OA seeking the aforesaid relief.
3. On the contrary, the respondents in their reply statement have stated that the DOP&T vide OM dated 10.02.2011 advised to review the cadre structure to harmonise the functional needs of the organisation and career progression of employees and to mitigate problem of stagnation. As such, Mechanization and Technology Division of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation undertook the process of amalgamation of various posts/cadres, wherever it was feasible. The restructuring of the entire technical and non-technical cadre of Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes (FMTTIs) were initiated in 2012. The cadre restructuring was aimed to (i) remove the ambiguity that existed in 7 OA.No.1410/2015 the names of the posts, as the posts having the same duties had different designations in the each of the institute (ii) widen the scope of promotion (iii) enhance the promotional avenues to the incumbents working on the isolated posts of FMTTIs. The cadres of technical and non-technical posts available at Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute (FMTTIs) located at Budni (M.P.), Hisar(Haryana), Anantapur (A.P.) and Biswanath Chariali (Assam) have been restructured by clubbing the posts with identical pay scales and duties. Orders of common nomenclature for various technical and non technical posts at FMTTIs were issued on 07.10.2014. Before amalgamation of the cadres/posts, the recruitment rules applicable to each cadre/post was unique to each of the FMTTIs. Due to the amalgamation of the cadres/posts, the recruitment rules applicable to each cadre/post unique to each of the FMTTIs became inactive. The Union Public Service Commission vide their DO dated 30.10.2012 advised all Ministries/ Departments to review the Recruitment Rules once in five years to incorporate such changes as are necessary to bring them to conformity with the changed position, including additions to or reductions in the sanctioned strength of a particular cadre and to ensure that the Educational Qualifications and experience prescribed for appointment to the post match with the duties and responsibilities of the post. The UPSC requested to undertake review of the existing RRs, especially those which were notified prior to 2008 in respect of the posts under the administrative control of the Ministry/Department. In compliance to the instructions of UPSC, process of amendment / review of existing RRs of various technical and non technical posts at FMTTIs was initiated. The procedure for preparing / amending Recruitment Rules is that the draft prepared was approved and vetted by the 8 OA.No.1410/2015 competent authority in the Ministry will be sent to Department of Personnel and Training, Union Public Service Commission, Legislature Department and Official Language wing of Ministry of Law for their approval and vetting. The final Recruitment Rules, after being approved by the Hon'ble Minister will be notified in the Gazette of India. Common recruitment rules to the various technical Group 'C' posts at Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute was notified vide Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute Technical Group C Posts Recruitment Rules, 2014 notified vide G.S.R. 902(E) on 16.12.2014 and amendments to the recruitment rules vide G.S.R. 606 (E) on 31.07.2015. In view of the notified common Recruitment Rules to the various Technical and non-Technical Group B(NG) and Group C Posts at Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes, the Competent Authority vide Ministry's letter dated 11.05.2015 issued directives that (i) common Recruitment Rules for all the FMTTIs will effect a common seniority list, reservation roster, recruitment roster for each cadre, which will be prepared and maintained by the Ministry;
(ii) filling up of Group B(NG) and Group C posts will be monitored by the Ministry; (iii) Ministry will nominate the Director, FMTTI as Chairman of DPC depending on the vacancy. After completion of the subsequent procedures like preparation of common seniority list, reservation roster, recruitment roster etc which was affected due to common recruitment rules for each cadre/post at FMTTIs, the filling up of the vacancy posts at FMTTIs was initiated. The representations received on preparation of common seniority list from the officials of FMTTIs were disposed off. The merger of various posts/cadre and subsequent common RRs for each cadre/posts at FMTTIs, has taken place after 9 OA.No.1410/2015 a deep thought process and certainly keeping in view the needs of the FMTTIs and also the modus operandi of the work place i.e. FMTTIs office. This facilitate consolidation of small and isolated cadres of the 4 FMTTIs to a larger cadre, remove the ambiguity that existed in the name of the posts, as the post having the same duties had different designation in each institute, provide wider scope of promotion and lessen the problem of stagnation, to provide promotional posts for isolated cadre/post, provide scope for diverse experience and service to the employees, enables the multi utility of the posts. The educational qualification and experience needed for each posts have been amended to meet the needs of the post and as per current requirements of the job. In the process, it was felt that employees who joined early in any of the FMTTIs have benefited in the common seniority list and overall it has also opened up better promotional avenues to all the employees. The action of the Department originated in comprehensive overview of the functions of the 4 FMTTIs duly keeping in view in the long term benefit of functional requirement. The respondents further submit that the contention of the applicant is agreed to the extent that the cadres of technical and non-technical posts available at Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute (FMTTIs) located at Budni, Hisar, Anantpur and Assam have been restricted by clubbing the posts with identical pay scales and duties. The provision in the RRs published vide GSR 902(E) dated 16.12.2014 that educational qualification of Direct Recruits to the post of Technical Assistant being made applicable to the promotees also has been reviewed in consultation with other departments as per existing procedure and notified vide GSR 606 (E) on 31.07.2015. Hence, the question of 10 OA.No.1410/2015 doing Electrical job by mechanical trade employees and vice versa does not arise.
4. The amalgamation of the cadres/posts has also led to the assimilation of duties attached to the posts. Now, the posts will be identified as per their new nomenclatures. The employees of FMTTIs, were plotted in the common seniority list for each cadre as per their seniority. The representation received from Sri N.V.Nageswara Rao, Senior Technician on the combined seniority list for Group 'C' Technical posts resulted due to amalgamation of various similar post and common recruitment rules to each cadre/post, was disposed off vide Ministry's letter dated 18.06.2015. As submitted in the foregoing paras, the whole exercise is based on overall welfare of the staff. This type of clubbing in the department has been taking place from time to time. Hence, there is no merit in the OA which is liable to be dismissed.
5. Heard Sri M.Venkanna, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri V.Vinod Kumar, learned Senior Panel Counsel for the respondents and perused the materials placed on record.
6. As can be seen from the pleadings, in order to improve the governance within the Department as well as harmonise the functional needs of the organisation, restructuring of the cadres and posts was done by the respondents in the public interest. This restructuring resulted in consolidation of small and isolated cadres of 4 FMTTIs to a larger cadre duly removing the ambiguity that existed in the name of post as the post having the same duties but different designations in each Institute, provided wider scope of promotion and lessen the problem of 11 OA.No.1410/2015 stagnation, provided scope for diverse experience and service to the employees and enabled the multi utility of the posts. The educational qualification and experience needed for each posts have been amended to meet the needs of the post and as per current requirements of the job. In the process, the employees who joined early in any of the FMTTIs have benefited in the common seniority list and overall it has also opened up better promotional avenues to all the employees. The action of the Department originated in comprehensive overview of the functions of the 4 FMTTIs duly keeping in view the long term benefit of functional requirement. The cadres of technical and non-technical posts available at Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute (FMTTIs) located at Budni, Hisar, Anantpur and Assam have been restricted but by clubbing the posts with identical pay scales and duties for which Recruitment Rules(RRs) are also revised duly consulting the competent authorities to give better scope of promotion to employees. The provision in the RRs published vide GSR 902(E) dated 16.12.2014 that educational qualification of Direct Recruits to the post of Technical Assistant being made applicable to the promotees also has been reviewed in consultation with other departments as per the existing procedure and notified vide GSR 606 (E) on 31.07.2015.
7. Since restructuring and improving the governance within the organisation is the prerogative of the concerned Department, the Tribunal finds no scope to intervene as observed by the Hon'ble Uttarakhand High Court in Prakash Chandra vs. State Of Uttarakhand And Others on 10 October, 2019 in Writ Petition (S/B) No. 467 of 2019 by relying on a catena of judgments of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, which is reproduced as below:
12OA.No.1410/2015
9. Even otherwise, what the petitioner seeks is for a mandamus to be issued to the State Government to amend the 2007 Rules. While the High Court, undoubtedly, has the power to strike down Rules, if they fall foul of Part-III of the Constitution of India, that would not justify the High Court taking upon itself the task of amending Rule 7 of the 2007 Rules or to issue a mandamus to the State Government to do so.
Legislative power is exercised by the legislature directly or, subject to certain conditions, may be exercised by some other authority on such a power being delegated to them. But exercise of that power, whether by the legislature or by its delegate, is an exercise of a legislative power. The fact that the power was delegated to the executive does not convert that power into an executive or administrative power. No court can issue a mandate to a legislature to enact a particular law. Similarly no court can direct a subordinate legislative body to enact or not to enact a law which it may be competent to enact. (Supreme Court Employees' Welfare Association v. Union of India: AIR 1990 SC 334; State of J&K v. A.R. Zakki & others: AIR 1992 SCC 1546; State of Andhra Pradesh v. T. Gopalakrishna Murthi and Ors:
AIR 1976 SC 123; Mangalam Organics Ltd. vs. Union of India:
(2017) 7 SCC 221 and Narinder Chand Hem Raj v. Lt. Governor, Administrator, Union Territory Himachal Pradesh: AIR 1971 SC 2399; Dhananjay Verma vs. State of Uttarakhand & others: Full Bench judgment in Writ Petition (S/B) No.45 of 2014 dated 21.05.2019).
10. While it has the power to strike down a law on the ground of want of authority, this Court would not sit in appeal over the policy of the State Legislature in enacting a law. [Rusom Cavasiee Cooper v. Union of India: (1970) 1 SCC 248). Just as it cannot direct a legislature to enact a particular law, (Supreme Court Employees' Welfare Association v. Union of India: AIR 1990 SC 334), the High Court, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, cannot direct the Executive to exercise power by way of subordinate Legislation, pursuant to the power delegated by the Legislature to enact a law, in a particular manner. (Indian Soaps and Toiletries Makers Association vs. Ozair Husain and Ors: (2013) 3 SCC 641; Dhananjay Verma vs. State of Uttarakhand & others: Full Bench judgment in Writ Petition (S/B) No.45 of 2014 dated 21.05.2019).
11. It is not within the domain of the Court to legislate. The Courts interpret the law, and have the jurisdiction to declare the law unconstitutional. But, the courts are not to plunge into policy making by adding something to the policy by issuing a writ of mandamus. 13 OA.No.1410/2015
(Census Commissioner and Ors. v. R. Krishnamurthy: (2015) 2 SCC 796 and Mangalam Organics Ltd. vs. Union of India: (2017) 7 SCC
221). A writ of Mandamus cannot be issued to the Legislature to enact a particular law, or to the Rule making authority to make rules in a particular manner or even to the Government to frame a policy. (Supreme Court Employees' Welfare Association v. Union of India:
AIR 1990 SC 334; State of J&K v. A.R. Zakki & others: AIR 1992 SCC 1546; State of Andhra Pradesh v. T. Gopalakrishna Murthi and Ors: AIR 1976 SC 123; Mangalam Organics Ltd. vs. Union of India:
(2017) 7 SCC 221 and Narinder Chand Hem Raj v. Lt. Governor, Administrator, Union Territory Himachal Pradesh: AIR 1971 SC 2399; Dhananjay Verma vs. State of Uttarakhand & others: Full Bench judgment in Writ Petition (S/B) No.45 of 2014 dated 21.05.2019). Since increase in the upper age limit from 35 to 42 years can only be made by an amendment to the 2007 Rules, which power is legislative in character, the relief which the petitioner seeks, for a mandamus to enhance the upper age limit from 35 to 42 years, cannot be granted.
8. The action of the respondents is for the betterment of the institute and hence an individual interest if at all suffers has to be given less priority in the overall interests of the organisation and good governance. As such the Tribunal has little scope to intervene in the policy matters of the respondents. In view of the foregoing reasons, we do not find any merit in the contention made by the applicant and the OA is therefore liable to be dismissed.
9. Accordingly, the OA is dismissed. However, there shall be no order as to costs.
(SHALINI MISRA) (SUDHI RANJAN MISHRA) ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBER JUDICIAL MEMBER /ps/