Sunil Ambwani, J. - (1.) Heard Sri Somesh Khare for petitioners and Sri B.N. Singh, learned . counsel for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and other respondents.
(2.) All the petitioners are serving as Senior Telecom Operating Assistant (Senior T.O.A.) in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited at Ghaziabad. Petitioners 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 belong to Other Castes, petitioner no. 5 belongs to Scheduled Caste and petitioner no. 7 belongs to Scheduled Tribe. The petitioners have claimed the benefit of reservation in promotions. By this writ petition, they have prayed for quashing letter/order dated 1.4.2003 and supplementary result declared in pursuance thereto for promotion to the post of Junior Telecom Officer (JTO) in 15% quota, in terms of relaxation in qualifying standards as provided in Class 3 (iii) of the Departmental Letter dated 10,3.2003. The writ petition was amended by adding grounds for quashing Clause (iv) of para-3 of the Circular dated 10.3.2003, to the extent of expression 'whichever was later' and or to declare the same to be arbitrary, illegal, discriminatory and thus violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
(3.) The promotions to the post of Junior Telecom Officer are provided by the Junior Telecom Officer Recruitment Rules, 1996 (Rules of 1997) notified by the Ministry of Communications (Department of Communications), Government of India under Article 309 of Constitution of India. The quota (15%) is reserved for promotion of departmental candidates through a competitive examination. Rule 7 gives powers to the Central Government for relaxation where it is necessary or expedient to do so and for the reasons to be recorded in writing, relaxing any of the provisions of the Rules with respect of any class or category of persons. The petitioners appeared in the Departmental Examination for promotions held for U.P. (West) and UAL Telecom. Circle, jointly on 15/16.5.1999. The result was declared on 14.12.1999. They did not qualify. About 73 vacancies could not be filled up in these selections and thus the examinations were held again on 17/18 June, 2003, and were rescheduled for 17/18.2.2001. Once again the examinations were postponed and were ultimately held on 16/17.9.2000.;