Sudhir Agarwal - (1.) -The petitioner Santosh Kumar aggrieved by the order dated 7.10.1999, passed by the Commissioner, Chitrakoot Dham, Banda, has filed this writ petition, seeking a writ of certiorari for quashing the same.
(2.) THE facts in brief are that the petitioner is a Class IV employee working as collection chaprasi/ collection peon under the District Magistrate/Collector, Chitrakoot. In the Collectorate there are two kinds of establishments, namely, "Collelctorate Establishment" and "Collection Establishment". THE petitioner belongs to Collection Establishment. It is said that employees from one Establishment to another are transferable, seniority list of Class IV employees is common and only for administrative purposes, the two Establishments are different. By the Government order dated 31.8.1982 15% of Class III ministerial posts are to be filled in by promotion of Class IV employees. By order dated 11.9.1997 the petitioner was transferred as collection peon in the office of District Magistrate, Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. THE petitioner came to know that there already existed vacancies of Class III post in the newly created district of Chitrakoot which were liable to be filled in by promotion of Class IV employees of the district. He made a representation dated 19.5.1998 to the District Magistrate requesting that he is also eligible for consideration for promotion to Class III post and, therefore, should be considered for the same. THE District Magistrate, Chitrakoot, respondent No. 1 directed the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Karvi to send the list of Class IV employees working in the Collection Department and Nazarat for being considered for promotion to Class III post. Pursuant thereto, Tehsildar Karvi vide order dated 6.6.1998 sent petitioner's name for consideration for promotion to Class III post. When the petitioner came to know that he is not being considered for the said promotion, he made a representation dated 4.8.1998 whereafter, the District Magistrate promoted Raj Narain and Ram Chandra who were working as chaprasi in Nazarat, Tehsil Karvi to the post of Sahayak Mukhya Rajasv Lekhakar (Assistant Chief Revenue Assistant). Aggrieved, the petitioner made a representation dated 31.8.1998 stating that the persons having inferior record have been promoted and the promotions have not been made in accordance with Government order dated 31.8.1982. His representation, however, has been rejected by the Commissioner vide order dated 7.10.1999, impugned in the writ petition. The respondent No. 1 has filed counter-affidavit stating that Collector and Collection Establishment are separate and different from each other. The staff of the two is neither inter-transferable nor there is a common seniority list of the employees of both the Establishments. Employees of Collectorate are appointed by District Magistrate while the staff of Collection Establishment is appointed by Sub-Divisional Magistrate. However, it is not disputed that pursuant to the Government order dated 4.7.1969, a combined seniority list of ministerial staff of Collectorate Establishment and Collection Establishment was prepared but the same is confined only to ministerial staff and not Class IV. The petitioner was not transferred to the office of District Magistrate, Chhatrapati Sahu Ji Maharaj Nagar which is now known as Chitrakoot but he was only attached with the said office for distribution of office letters on account of paucity of staff. His representation was considered but since there was no Class III post in Collection Establishment vacant and vacancy was in respect to Class III staff of Collectorate Establishment, therefore, the petitioner was not considered and respondents No. 3 and 4 have been promoted. The petitioner has filed rejoinder-affidavit giving various illustrations were Class IV employees from Collection Establishment have been transferred to Collectorate Establishment and vice versa.
(3.) RESPONDENT No. 4 has also filed a counter-affidavit stating that he was senior-most Scheduled Caste category Class IV employee in the Collection Establishment and the petitioner is very junior to him. He was appointed as chaprasi in Collelctorate Establishment by District Magistrate, Banda on 22.4.1984, whereupon he joined on 1.7.1984 and was transferred to Tehsil Karvi on 6.7.1984. He claims that being seniormost chaprasi, he was rightly promoted by the District Magistrate, Banda, vide order dated 22.8.1998. He has also completed probation period of one year and has been confirmed by letter dated 25.4.2001. It is also said that Collectorate and Collection Establishments being different, the petitioner could not have been considered for promotion to the post in question which belongs to Collectorate Establishment and therefore, he has rightly been excluded from the zone of consideration. The petitioner in rejoinder-affidavit has stated that respondents No. 3 and 4 have not been promoted against reserved vacancies and, therefore, exclusion of the petitioner from the zone of consideration is illegal.;