NAMATA GOHAIN Vs. STATE OF ASSAM & OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been preferred by the petitioner claiming her seniority under the Service Rules applicable in the petitioner's case.

(2.) The petitioner was appointed as a Lecturer in English by the Government of Assam in the Silchar Polytechnic in Dec., 1967. Serving in that capacity, petitioner was transferred to different polytechnics of Assam including Gauhati Girls Polytechnic as Lecturer in English in the year 1978. In the year 1969 the petitioner's service was regularised and she was confirmed in that post with effect from 22.11.76. As a Lecturer in English in polytechnic the petitioner was holding non-technical post in the Department of Technical Education, but the post was encadred in Assam Education Service Class II which included the members of the services working in various Degree Colleges, both Science and Arts. In 1980 the service of the petitioner was placed at the disposal of the Education (A) Department and she was appointed as Lecturer in English at the Assam Sanskrit College at Gauhati and since then she has been serving in that capacity, although initially the transfer of the petitioner to Education (A) Department was extended from time to time.

(3.) Considering her seniority in service petitioner held the post of Principal of Assam Sanskrit College for more than 3 years from 1982 to 1985. The vacancy was created for the permanent absence of the Principal of the College. The Government of Assam in the Education Department prepared a seniority list in the cadre of Lecturers of Assam Sanskrit College under the Assam Education Service by order No. EMI-125/81/7 dated 22.9.81 wherein the name of the petitioner was shown at the bottom mentioning the date of transfer in 1980 as the date of appointment. On the basis of this wrong mentioning of the date of appointment as 1980 instead of 1967 the charge of the Principalship of the College was taken away from the petitioner in 1985 though she was the senior most Lecturer working in the college, showing the names of the persons appointed after her, as senior to her. In the resultant vacancy the State Government allowed the junior Lecturer to hold the charge of Principal ignoring the legitimate claim of the petitioner. Being aggrieved, petitioner filed appeal before the Assam Administrative Tribunal being Appeal Case No. 37ATA/86 wherein she claimed fixation of inter-se seniority in the Assam Education Service and the Tribunal while disposing the appeal by order dated 29.11.86 held that the posting in Sanskrit College does not sever her link from the post or service in which she was confirmed with effect from 22.4.76. Further, it was held that the post of Lecturer in the Sanskrit College are not part of any service carried a pay scale lower than that of English Lecturer in the Polytechnics and that the petitioner shall continue to be a member of the relevant cadre with due seniority in accordance with law and her status in the Sanskrit College will be as deputations from her parent service and direction was given by the Tribunal to deleted the name of the petitioner from the gradation list relating to Sanskrit College. After the direction passed by the Tribunal, the petitioner made several representations before the State Government to take her back in the Assam Education Service and to accommodate her in any one of the Class I posts of the cadre. As no effective action has been taken by the Government, the petitioner has to file another appeal before the Tribunal being Appeal Case No. 78 of 1988 wherein the Tribunal granted further two months time to the State Government to give effect of the order and also to dispose of the representation pending before the Government and the DPI was directed to report compliance of the order by 3.10.88. Even after that no effective action was taken and petitioner had to file representation after representation without any result. Ultimately, the petitioner approached this Court for a direction to the State Government to comply with the decision of the Administrative Tribunal claiming her promotion to the post of Professor.