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45.Thereafter, the petitioners rely upon a Division Bench judgment of this Court in K.L. Noatay v. UOI & ORS., WP(C) NO. 4377/2003 which held that due to non encadrement of officers cadre as an organized service, the promotion prospects cannot be denied and such patently arbitrary, discriminatory policy decision of the State can be interfered with by the Court and the Administrative cadre officers of BRO were directed to be encadred as an organized cadre. The relevant parts of the said judgment reads as under:

"The first two reasons given by the department to refuse to encadre the administrative officers cadre as an organized cadre are wholly fallacious. The department has not correctly appreciated the tenor of the grievance raised by the officers working in administrative officers cadre in respect of non- encadrement of their cadre as an organized cadre. The grievance raised was that due to non- encadrement of the administrative officers cadre as an organized cadre there is lack of promotional prospects in the said cadre. It was not the grievance of the officers working in administrative officers cadre that they are being discriminated against their counterparts in the two engineering cadres and thus their cadre should also be encadred as an organized cadre like the two engineering cadres. The career progression of the officers working in the said two engineering cadres has only been referred to by the officers working in administrative officers cadre to demonstrate the lack of promotional prospects in their cadre. Thus, the approach of the department in drawing a comparison between administrative officers cadre and the two engineering cadres and thereby refusing encadrement to administrative officers cadre is totally non-focused. In any case, it is not correct to say that the administrative officers cadre does not play an important role in the working of BRO. BRO has a task force of approximately 42,000 personnel. The administrative officers cadre is responsible for assisting, advising and operating matters of discipline, administration and other matters relating to human behavior and motivation in personnel of BRO. The administrative officers cadre is also responsible for the general safety of unit lines, maintenance of regimental institutions, general administration matters, preservation of resources and liaison with other units on matters connected with execution of tasks assigned to them.

18. As regards the application of the Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACPS) to the officers working in the administrative officers grade is concerned, relevant would it be to note that in order to remove stagnation, the Fifth Central Pay Commission recommended Assured Career Progression Scheme (ACPS) to all the general employees in the Central Government.

The scheme of ACP recommended by the Fifth Central Pay Commission envisaged three time-bound promotions for Group A posts after 4, 8 and 13 years of service. For posts in Groups B, C and D, two time-bound promotions were to be provided on completion of 8 and 16 years of service for Group B, 10 and 20 years for Group C and 12 and 24 years for Group D. The Government accepted the said scheme in a modified manner and introduced the ACPS for Groups B, C and D and isolated posts in Group A where two financial upgradations were to be provided on 12 and 24 years of service. The financial upgradations were to be in the next higher grade in the existing hierarchy. The Sixth Central Pay Commission recommended certain modifications in the Assured Career Progression Scheme implemented by the Government. One of the recommendations made by the Sixth Central Pay Commission was that save and except organized Group A services, the benefit of ACPS be available to all posts belonging to Group A, whether isolated or not, which recommendation has been accepted by the Central Government. Grant of financial upgradation envisaged by Assured Career Progression Scheme is different from grant of higher scale of pay recommended by the Pay Commissions therefore the Assured Career Progression Scheme does provide a limited relief to the officers of the administrative officers cadre of BRO to a limited extent but is not a substitute for the benefits available to the said officers on encadrement of administrative officers cadre as an organized cadre.