Umesh Chandra Upreti vs State of Uttarakhand and Another

V.K. Bist, J.—Heard learned Counsel for the both parties.

Present application has been filed by the Applicant/Petitioner for recalling the order 26-08-2008 passed by this Court whereby Writ Petition No. 1556(S/S) 2006 was dismissed on the ground of alternative remedy available to the Petitioner before the State Public Service Tribunal.

This application is treated as a Review-Application.

Learned Counsel for the Applicant/Petitioner argued that Petitioner cannot be relegated to State Public Service Tribunal as the writ petition was filed by him for a direction to the Respondents to fix his salary on the last salary drawn by him and for payment of arrears alongwith interest @ 18% per annum.

According to the learned Counsel for the Petitioner omission or inaction can only be challenged before the High Court and not before the Tribunal. In this context he referred Section 4 of the U.P. Public Services (Tribunals) Act, 1976, which provides that a person who is or has been a public servant and is aggrieved by an order pertaining to a service matter within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, may make a reference of claim to the Tribunal for the redressal of his grievance. He relied on the judgment reported in judgment Today Public Services Tribunal Bar Association Vs. State of U.P. and Another, . and the judgment reported in 2006 (2) UD 439, Bhuvan Chandra Pandey and Ors. v. State of Uttaranchal and Ors.

This Court finds force in the arguments advanced by learned Counsel for the Applicant/Petitioner and is of the candid view that omission or inaction on the part of the Respondents'' authority cannot be challenged before the Tribunal in any manner. Therefore, the Review Application M.C.C. No. 1287/2008 is allowed, the order dated 26-08-2008 passed by this Court is hereby recalled. The writ petition is restored to its original number.

List this petition in due course.