Angad Singh vs State of Uttarakhand and others

Prayers in the writ petition are as follows:

"I. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the Respondents to hold a Departmental Promotion Committee to fill up the vacant posts of Assistant Engineer considering the claim of the Petitioner for promotion to the next higher post of Assistant Engineer, forthwith and not to continue with the posting of junior persons on the post of Assistant Engineer on officiating basis. II. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the Respondent No. 1 and 2 to complete the entire formalities as required by the Respondent No. 3 vide letters dated 27-01-2017, 30-01-2017 and 13-04-2017 and to render full cooperation to the Respondent No. 3 so that the Departmental Promotion Committee may be convened shortly and promotions are made in accordance with law."

Briefly put, the case of the petitioner is as follows:

Petitioner was appointed as Junior Engineer in the month

of January, 1983. He has completed almost 34 years of service.

The next higher post is the post of Assistant Engineer. He has

not got a chance to be promoted to the next higher post despite

the fact that he has completed 34 years of service. It is

submitted that the posts fell vacant in the recruitment year

2014-15 but they are still lying vacant despite the fact that the

petitioner and other similarly situated persons are waiting for

promotion for the years together. There is a case that persons,

who are much junior, have been given posting on officiating

basis on the posts of Assistant Engineer.

Learned counsel for the petitioner refers to the

communication between the Uttarakhand Public Service

Commission and the State Government. Initially, the DPC was

scheduled to be held on 02.02.2017. The Commission wrote, by

Annexure No. 4, requesting for the formalities to be complied

with so that the DPC could be held well in time on 02.02.2017. It

was not convened for reasons best known to the respondents.

On 13.04.2017 again, the Commission wrote a letter to the State

Government (Annexure No. 5) stating that the DPC would be

held on 24.04.2017. Again it was not convened and was

deferred sine die. The petitioner has no information about the

next date of DPC. It is essentially with these allegations that the

petitioner is before us.

We heard Mr. Sanjay Bhatt, learned counsel for the

petitioner, Mr. Pradeep Joshi, Standing Counsel for the

State/respondent nos. 1 and 2 and Mr. B.D. Kandpal, learned

counsel for the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission.

Mr. Pradeep Joshi, learned Standing Counsel would

submit that as far as complying with the entire formalities

required for the Commission to hold DPC is concerned, it will

be done within a period of one month. Mr. B.D. Kandpal,

learned counsel for the Commission would submit that within

a period of 15 days thereafter of compliance, the Commission

would hold the DPC.

Taking note of all the submissions, we dispose of the writ

petition as follows:

The formalities required to be completed by respondent

nos. 1 and 2 will be done within a period of six weeks from the

date of production of a certified copy of this judgment before

respondent no. 2.

On completion of the formalities, the third respondent-

Commission will proceed to hold the DPC at the earliest, at any

rate within a period of one month from the date of compliance

along with formalities.