Mrs. J. Anjani Dayanand, J. - (1.) This Petition had been originally filed in the High Court of Calcutta as a Writ Petition under C.R. No. 2905 -w/81 and on transfer under Sec. 29 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, has been numbered as T.A. 902:/1986.
(2.) The petitioner prays to set aside the order, dated 15 -9 -1980 (Annexure 'E' to the Petition) cancelling her selection to the post of Telephone Operator on the ground that the sub -group or sub -caste Saha of the "SUNRI" community is not to be treated as Scheduled Caste in West Bengal. She also prays for other consequential benefits.
(3.) The case of the Petitioner is that she was a scheduled caste candidate within the meaning of Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution of India that she belonged to the Scheduled Caste SUNRI community as per the certificate given to her by the Directorate of Scheduled Caste and Tribes Welfare, Government of West Bengal, Calcutta, (Annexure A) and that she was selected against the quota for Scheduled Caste. She was also offered appointment vide Memo No. ERA 6048/Pt. I/Vol.II, dated 26 -12 -1979 to report to the Traffic Superintendent (B) at Telephone Bhavan, Calcutta with immediate effect to work as Short Duty Telephone Operate vide letter of recruitment, dated 26 -12 -1979. The petitioners names appears at Serial No.48. The sister of the petitioner is also an employee working under the State Government against the Scheduled Caste quota and the brother of the petitioner Shri Nirmal Chandra Saha is also holding a substantive appointment as Junior Engineer under the General Manager, Calcutta Telephones vide Order No. SC -3009/IV, dated 1 -10 -1979 issued by the Assistant General Manager (Staff), Calcutta Telephones. Whilst so, she was informed vide Memo No. AER/Conf./Saha Community, dated 15th September, 1980 issued by the Assistant General Manager (Staff) Calcutta Telephones, Calcutta, that her appointment had been cancelled on the ground that according to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe orders (Amendment) Act, 1976 'Sunri' excluding Saha is to be regarded as Scheduled Caste in West Bengal. It has also been further clarified by the Ministry of Home Affairs in their Letter No. 12017/1/77 -SCT -I, dated 15 -7 -1978. This was also subsequently confirmed by the Director General of Posts and Telegraphs, New Delhi vide his letter No. 100/22/80 -STC -I, dated 11 -7 -1980. The petitioner has challenged the order cancelling her appointment on the ground that the order is bad in law, not sustainable either in law or fact. She was not given any opportunity to resist the statement. The order was in violation of all principles of natural justice.;