Suresh Chandra Chaturvedi vs Union Of India Through on 23 December, 2014
It is clear therefrom that the respondent No.1 was junior to the respondent No.2 and was senior to respondent No.3. Next promotion is to the post of Senior Translator. It is not in dispute that as per the Recruitment Rules, the said post of Senior Translator is a non-selection post and criteria for promotion prescribed is seniority-cum-fitness. Thus, the promotion is to be made on the basis of seniority and only an unfit person is to be excluded.
In the instant case as the post itself has been declared in the recruitment rules as a selection post the facts of the case in Union of India versus Amit Shankar & Others (supra) are dissimilar and hence the order is not applicable to the present OA even though the designation happened to be the same. When the post is a non-selection post admittedly the criteria for promotion is seniority-cum-fitness, whereas when it is a selection post, the situation is reverse and the criteria becomes merit-cum-seniority. Moreover, this judgement is rendered in respect of incident which occurred prior to 31.10.2006 when the present rules i.e. Central Secretariat Official Language (Groups A & B) were brought into effect.