- (1.) M. Katju, J. This writ petition has been filed against the impugned judgment of the CAT dated 31-1-2000 Annexure 26 to the writ petition and the letter dated 25-7-1995 and 3-8-1995 Annexures 20 and 21 to the writ petition. The petitioners have also prayed for a mandamus directing the respondents to promote them on the post of Junior Telecom Officer in the department of Tele Communication, Government of India with all consequential benefits.
(2.) WE have perused the impugned order of the CAT and have heard submissions of the learned Counsel for the parties. The petitioners are holding various posts mentioned in the paragraph 2 of the writ petition. The petitioners 1, 2, 7 and 10 are on the post of Telecom Technical Assistant, the Petitioner No. 3 is Junior Engineer (Electrical), the Petitioner Nos. 4, 6, 8, 9 and 11 are Senior Telecom Operative Assistant (Phones), and the Petitioner No. 5 is Senior Telecom Office Assistant (General ). The Union of India on 15- 6-1990 made Rules for recruitment of Junior Telecom Officers vide Annexure 1 to the writ petition. There are two sources of recruitment to the post of JTO namely direct recruitment whose quota is 65% and Departmental promotion whose quota is 35%. The promotion quota is further divided into three categories (a) 15% by promotion of departmental candidates through a competitive examination (b) 10% by promotion of Transmission Assistant Telephone Inspectors, Quota Exchange Assistant and Wireless operators through a competitive examination and (c) 10% by promotion from the aforesaid posts on seniority-cum-fitness basis through a qualifying test. Rule 7 of the Rules provides that the Central Government where it thinks necessary or expedient may by order in writing may relax the provision for any class or category of persons. By notification issued on 27-8-1991 it was announced that an examination would be held for promotion vide Annexures 2 and 3 to the petitioner. The Rules were relaxed for the promotion quota, which was made open to all those who possess three years Engineering Diploma after Class 10th of 1st Class B. Sc. with Physics and Mathematics. This relaxation was made for five years i. e. upto the year 1994. Further relaxation regarding percentage of departmental quota for the certain cadres as mentioned in paragraph 7 of the writ petition and recruitment to the cadre of JTO was increased vide Annexures-4 and 5 to the writ petition. The petitioners and others appears in the examination in which three candidates were declared successful against the 15% quota and two candidates against 10% quota. However, on 30-9-1993 the Federation of Employees made a representation to Respondent No. 2 to make a one-time relaxation in the Rules to promote all those who had passed competitive examination but could not be promoted to the post of Junior Telecom Officers, as very few posts were available. True copy of the result contained in letter dated 27-7-1993, representation of the Federation dated 30-9-1993 and letter dated 12-1-1994 are annexed as Annexures 6, 7 and 8 to the petition. The demand of the Federation resulted in the letter dated 24-8-1994 vide Annexure-9 to the petition. By this letter the respondent No. 2 in reference to the earlier letter dated 13-7-1993 giving relaxation to persons on certain posts in direct recruitment quota made a further relaxation as a one-time measure and it was decided to divert all the available vacancies against direct recruitment quota to the departmental competitive promotion quota in order to absorb the persons who have qualified in the examination but could not be selected due to shortage of vacancies vide Annexure-9 to the petitioner. A further letter dated 27-9-1994 was issued in this connection vide Annexure 10 to the writ petition to declare the result of more candidates who had appeared in the examination on 14/15 March, 1992. Seventeen more candidates were declared successful vide letter dated 11-10-1994 Annexure 11 to the writ petition. By letter dated 21-3-1995 and 24-3-1995 Annexures 12 and 13 to the writ petition several persons were decided to be promoted.
(3.) IN paragraph 12 of the petition it is stated that on 25-4-1995 the result of 50 candidates including petitioners were declared and they were held to be successful vide Annexure 14 to the petition. By letter dated 30-6-1995/3-7-1995 of the General Manager Telecom, Lucknow a few employees were directed to take pre-promotional training meant for promotion as JTO. IN this list of 14 employees the petitioners were not included although they were senior to the employees included in the list in the sense that their examination was held earlier. The respondent No. 4 issued another similar letter for similar purpose on 10-7-1995. True copies of the letter dated 3-7-1995 and 10-7-1995 are annexed as Annexures 16 and 17 to the writ petition. Aggrieved against this discrimination the Petitioner Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 alongwith other employees filed OA No. 366 of 1995 and eight other original applications were filed by the petitioners and other employees being OA Nos. 527 of 1995, 271 of 1996, 324 of 1997, 374 of 1997, 571 of 1997, 18 of 1997, 116 of 1997 and 153 of 1998. In these OAs the petitioners made a prayer for directing the respondents to give the petitioners promotion to the post of JTO after sending them for pre-promotional training prior to others being sent. True copy of the OA No. 366 of 1995 is annexed as Annexure 18 to the writ petition. During the pendency of the OA the respondent No. 2 issued letter dated 25-4-1995 whereby the letter dated 30-6-1995 was cancelled. The respondent No. 4 then cancelled the very result dated 25- 4-1995 vide letter dated 3-8-1995. True copies of these letters are Annexures 19, 20 and 21 to the writ petition.;