UDAY UMESH LALIT,J. - (1.) Leave to appeal granted in all Special Leave Petitions.
(2.) These are two groups of appeals, one arising from the Judgment and Order passed by the High Court of Orissa at Cuttack while the other arising from the decision of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. Since the issues involved in these matters are same, both sets of matters are being disposed of by this common Judgment.
(3.) The Directorate of Lift Irrigation in the Government of Odisha was converted into Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as the "OLIC"). The service conditions of Engineers including Junior Engineers which is the base cadre in the Engineering Wing of OLIC are governed by Orissa Service of Engineers ' Rules, 1941 ("1941 Rules" for short) as amended from time to time. Junior Engineers form the feeder cadre for promotion to the next level, namely, that of Assistant Engineers. Respondent No.11 -Rabi Sankar Patro, a Diploma holder in Electrical Engineering, joined OLIC as Junior Engineer (Electrical) and while in service, he acquired B.Tech (Civil) Degree from a Deemed to be University namely JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University, Udaipur, through Distance Education in the year 2009 and thereafter filed Writ Petition No.3848 of 2010 in the High Court Orissa. According to him, he being an in-service graduate Engineer was entitled to be promoted as Assistant Engineer. Said In the matter arising out of SLP(C) No.19807-19808 of 2012 writ petition was allowed without issuing notice to the respondents, placing reliance on an earlier order dated 14.12.2009 passed by the High Court in OJC No.13251 of 2001 by which OLIC was directed to consider the case of the concerned candidates as in-service graduate Engineers. OLIC being aggrieved, filed Review Petition No.58 of 2012 which was dismissed by the High Court on 15.03.2012 along with certain similar review petitions. The submissions recorded in support of the review petitions in the order of the High Court were as under:- "The argument advanced by Mr. Ashok Mohanty learned Sr. Counsel for the review petitioners that the opposite parties- employees have acquired Degree Qualification of distance/correspondence education course from JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth which is not recognized by AICTE. Therefore, they are not qualified ... ... .... ......Learned Sr. Counsel Mr. Mohanty placed much reliance upon the letter issued by AICTE on 6th October, 2010 wherein the AICTE has categorically stated as under: "It has been the policy of the AICTE, not to recognize the qualifications acquired through distance education mode at Diploma, Bachelors and Master 's level in the fields of Engineering Technology including Architecture, Town Planning, Pharmacy, Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Applied Arts and Crafts and Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM). AICTE only recognizes MBA and MCA programme through distance mode." " The Review Petition was dismissed by the High Court, observing inter alia, " ... .... Substantial number of persons have also acquired Engineering Degree through Universities providing Distance Education which are also Indian Universities. Further Clause(d) of Rule 9 of the Rules, 1941 does not specify that the qualifications obtained through distance education is not permissible and the Degree should be obtained from the approved Universities of the AICTE.";