Ramesh Kumar vs State of HP

Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary, J.—By means of this writ petition, the following reliefs have been claimed:-

(a) to issue a writ of mandamus, appropriate writ, order or direction in nature thereof, directing the respondents to consider and promote the petitioner as T-Mate on completion of 5 years regular service as a Beldar with all consequential benefits and interest on the arrears @ 18% pa;

(b) to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction in nature thereof to give full justice to the petitioner in the circumstances of the case and may pass such further writ, order or orders as this Hon''ble Court may deem fit, proper, just and expedient in the circumstances of the case.

The petitioner, who is working as Beldar on regular basis, claims promotion to the post of T-Mate. When the persons similarly situate, namely, S/Shri Sita Ram, Hem Ram, Ram Singh and Ram Prakash were promoted as T-Mate, he also made a representation to the respondent-Department with the request to promote him as T-Mate, but of no avail. Hence, this writ petition.

In reply, the stand taken by the respondents reads as follows:-

In this behalf it is respectfully submitted that the petitioner was engaged as daily wage Beldar w.e.f. 1989 and worked continuously up to 16.8.2000. The petitioner was made as work charged Beldar w.e.f. 1.4.1998 vide Executive Engineer office order No. PW-NLD-EA-II-WC-creation-Apptt./2000-847-52 dated 26.4.2000 upon completion of ten years or more service as on 31.3.1998 with minimum of 240 days in each calendar year, now since August 2005 he is working as regular Beldar. In the respondent Department in civil wing there is no post of T. Mate. The petitioner is still not eligible to be promoted as Mate but not T. Mate because his name falls at Sr. No. 24 in seniority list of Beldars. The total strength of beldars in Divisional cadre, is 461 with Respondent No. 3 Nalagarh Division. The post of Mate is again Divisional cadre to be filled 100% by promotion from Beldars whose strength is 32 in Nalagarh Division and only 12 posts are lying vacant. The copies of R & P rules of Beldars and Mates are annexed as annexure R-2 and R-3 respectively. The petitioner figure at Sr. No. 24 and there are senior to Petitioner fulfilling eligibility criteria.

In the light of the stand so taken by the respondent-State, learned counsel representing the petitioner, no doubt, sought repeated adjournments to have current instructions for filing rejoinder, however, failed to do so, and as such, the following order came to be passed in this writ petition on the previous date:-

Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has again pleaded no instructions. As prayed, post on 23.11.2012. Instructions be obtained positively in the meanwhile. Rejoinder, if any, be also filed, failing which the matter will be decided on merits.

Having gone through the records and taking into consideration the submissions made on both sides, it is apparent that the petitioner is working as Beldar on regular basis. In annexure R-1, the seniority list of Beldars, his name figures at Sr. No. 24. As per Recruitment and Promotion Rules for making recruitment against various posts in Public Works Department, the next promotion from the post of Beldar is to the post of Mate and not T-Mate. The mode of recruitment to the post of Mate is 100% by way of promotion from amongst the Beldars. A reference to this effect can be made to Recruitment and Promotion Rules, Annexure R-3. The cadre of Mate is Divisional level. In Nalagarh Division of the Public Works Department, there exist only 32 posts of Mate, out of which only 12 posts were lying vacant on the day of filing reply to the writ petition. The petitioner, who is at Sr. No. 24 in the seniority list, could have not been considered for promotion as Mate keeping in view the number of posts lying vacant and his position in the seniority list. It can, however, reasonably be believed that the respondent-Department will consider him for promotion as Mate as per his turn in the seniority list and Recruitment and Promotion Rules. However, so far as this petition is concerned, no case is found to be made out for the grant of the reliefs sought for. In view of the above observations, this petition fails and the same is accordingly dismissed, so also the pending application(s), if any. There shall however be no order as to costs.