Sunil Kumar Paswan & others vs Union Of India and others

Mr. R. N. Sahay, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Yashvardhan for the petitioners in W.P.(S) No. 7564 of 2017, Mr. Pandey Neeraj Rai for the petitioners in W.P.(S) No. 5956 of 2016 and Mr. Yogendra Prasad for the petitioners in W.P.(S) No. 728 of 2016 are present. Respondent Railways in W.P.(S) No. 7564 of 2017 is represented by Mr. Dilip Kumar Chakraverty, Mr. Anish Khan appears for the respondent nos. 1-4 in W.P.(S) No. 5956 of 2016 in place of Mr. M.A.Khan, who has unfortunately passed away during Pandemic and Mr. Onkar Nath Tiwary appears for the respondent nos. 5,6,7,9,10 and 11 through Video Conferencing.

Mr. Anish Khan undertakes to file fresh Vakalatnama on behalf of respondent nos. 1 to 4 within 3 weeks.

These writ petitions have been tagged together by order dated 18.08.2020 as common issue are involved herein.

W.P.(S) No. 5956 of 2016 has been taken up earlier on several occasions and lastly on 4th June, 2020 when Mr. Panday Neeraj Rai was allowed further 8 weeks' time to obtain instruction on the specific points taken note of in the order dated 11th September, 2019. Mr. Rai submits that no significant instructions has been furnished in the matter after the previous date since certain applications in respect of the decision in the case of Jarnail Singh and others Vs. Lachhmi Narain Gupta & others reported in (2018) 10 SCC 396 are pending before the Apex Court. As per the last order dated 22nd July, 2020, those matters have been ordered to be listed for final disposal after 4 weeks.

W.P.(S) Nos. 7564 of 2017 and 728 of 2018 are fresh matters raising the same issue arising out of the adjudication made by learned CAT in O.A./051/00107/2016. Learned CAT has quashed the order of promotion of the private respondents in O. A, some of whom are writ petitioners in W.P. (S) No. 7564 of 2017. Railways have been directed to draw a fresh promotion list.

In W.P. (S) No. 7564 of 2017 there are eight petitioners', respondent nos. 5 to 42 are the applicants and 43 to 49 are the private respondents in O.A impleaded as proforma respondents herein. In W.P. (S) No. 728 of 2018, there are 57 private respondents, in which applicants in O.A are respondent nos. 1 to 42 while rest of the respondents herein were private respondents in the O.A., whose promotions were set aside. Out of these respondent nos. 43 to 57, learned senior counsel for the petitioners in W.P.(S) No.7564 of 2017 undertakes to appear for the respondent nos. 43 to 50 as they are writ petitioners in his case.

Accordingly, let notices be issued on private respondents 1 to 49 in W.P.(S) No. 7564 of 2017 and respondent nos.1 to 42 and 51 to 57 in W.P.(S) No. 728 of 2018. All these private respondents, who were in the category of applicants or respondents in the O.A are stated to be under the jurisdiction of South Eastern Railway, Hatia. Since these respondents are serving employees, it would be appropriate to effect notice upon them through Head of the Department i.e., Divisional Railway Manger, South Eastern Railway, Hatia.

In order to avoid physical contact and considering the large number of respondents upon whom notices are to be effected, it would be proper that learned counsel for the petitioners in W.P.(S) No. 7564 of 2017 and 728 of 2018 furnish the entire pleadings through E-mail to the Registry within a period of 3 weeks. Registry would take steps to forward the E-mail containing the detailed pleadings to the Divisional Railway Manger, South Eastern Railway, Hatia for service of notice on the concerned respondents through soft copies if they are connected through E-mail or otherwise, through delivery of hard copies on each of them. Alongwith service report an affidavit showing service of notice be also filed by or on behalf of Divisional Railway Manger, South Eastern Railways, Hatia within 3 weeks thereafter.

E-mail address of Divisional Railway Manger, South Eastern Railway, Hatia is as under:

srdporanchi@gmail.com dpo@rnc.railnet.gov.in

Learned counsel for the Railways is at liberty to file supplementary counter affidavit in the meantime in WP(S)No. 7564 of 2017.

Let the matter be listed on 14th October, 2020.