- (1.) Leave granted in both the special leave petitions.
(2.) These two appeals arise out of the judgment in LPA 73/91 dated 9-9-1998 rendered by the Patna High Court. The appellants in the Civil Appeal arising out of SLP No. 21041 of 1998 are members of the Bihar State Subordinate Industries Field Officers' Association (hereinafter called the 'Field Employees) while the appellants in the Civil Appeal arising out of SLP 1133/99 are members of the Industrial Department Statistical Employees' Association (hereinafter called the 'Statistics Employees'). Both groups belong to the Non-gazetted Service in Bihar and the dispute is between these two groups on the one hand and Sri Kapildeo Prasad Singh and others who belong to the Gazetted Service on the other. The learned single Judge of the High Court of Patna held that the Rule contained in Annexure-I and in particular in Schedule IV of the Bihar Industries Service Rules, 1987 is ultra vires inasmuch as under that rule, the abovesaid non-gazetted category of officers i.e. field employees and statistical employees of Senior scales were included along with the gazetted categories, for promotion to the post of Manager/Assistant-Director etc. in the then scale of Rs. 1000-1820. The said decision of the learned single Judge was upheld by the Division Bench. Aggrieved by the consequent exclusion from the channel of promotion, these two sets of non-gazetted employees have filed these appeals.
(3.) We have to point out that the Statistics Employees have filed their SLP seeking leave as they were not parties in LPA 73/91. What happened was that the gazetted category of employees who were aggrieved by the inclusion of the field employees in the promotional channel filed writ petition CWJC 5352 of 1987 in the High Court. The learned single Judge struck down the relevant rule not only in so far as the field officers were concerned but also in relation to statistics employees. The Statistic Employees in Grade 880-1510 were not heard. They therefore filed LPA No. 82 of 1991. It was clarified by a separate judgment dated 20-5-1993 in LPA 82 of 1991 by a Division Bench that the judgment of the learned single Judge would not affect the statistics employees in grade 880-1510 who belonged to the Economic Investigating group. But unfortunately, this order was not noticed by the Division Bench which disposed of LPA 73/91 filed by the Field Employees against the judgment of the learned single Judge. The Division Bench in its order dated 9-9-1998 affirmed the entire judgment of the learned single Judge i.e. even that part which struck down the promotion channel for the statistics employees. Apprehending that this judgment dated 9-9-1998 amounted to striking down the rule in so far as the statistics employees were also concerned, - in spite of what was said in LPA 82 of 1991 - the Statistics employees filed SLP 1133/99 with leave. Having regard to the fact that these issues are pending from 1987, and that the striking down of the entire rule remained stayed and both Field Employees and Statistics Employees were given promotions under the impugned rule, we are deciding the matter on merits both in respect of the Field Employees and the Statistics Employees.;