Mahesh Grover, J. - (1.) The petitioners by invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India pray that the benefit of promotion be given to them as per the Government instructions prevalent governing the policy of promotion in the cases of employees belonging to reserved category. He further prays that promotion be made as per the provisions of the Haryana State Central Cooperative Bank's Staff Service (Common Cadre) Rules 1975. Another prayer for issuance of a writ in the nature of Certiorari has been made for quashing the decision dated 30.9.1993 (Annexure P-9).
(2.) The petitioners are the employees of the Central Cooperative Bank, Jind (hereinafter referred to as the Bank) and have served it in different capacities. The petitioner No. l is working as Executive Officer while petitioners No. 2, 3 and 6 are working as Clerks and petitioner No. 4 is working as Secretary and all of them belong to the reserved category.
(3.) The rules governing the promotion are contained in clause 9.8 of the Haryana State Central Cooperative Staff Common Cadre Rules 1975 (hereinafter referred to as the Common Cadre Rules 1975) and the same are extracted here below:- "9.8 Appointment by promotion: (i)The appointment by promotion to posts under a category shall be made from eligible employees working in lower category. (ii)In all promotion cases, reservation for the members of Scheduled Castes/Tribes and Backward Classes belonging to Class III and IV shall be as under : (a) There will be reservation in promotion 20% for the members of Scheduled Castes/Tribes and 2% for backward classes. While filling posts reserved for scheduled castes/tribes and backward classes, only officials belonging to these two categories should be considered (separately for each category) and promotion made from amongst them, officials other than those belonging to scheduled castes/tribes or backward classes should be promoted similarly out of their own slab. (b) If in any year, the promotion against vacancies reserved for scheduled caste/tribes and backward classes cannot be made because of lack of suitable candidates, then these vacancies should be carried forward for succeeding years. (c) While filling the promotion posts by reservation, the minimum standards of qualifications and experience. provided in the Service Rules should however be adhered to in every case and no relaxation should be made in this regard. (d ) In order to provide suitable stages for securing 22% reservation (20% for scheduled castes and 2% for backward classes) the vacancies at 3-8-13-18-28-33-38-43-48-53-58-63-68-73-78-83-88-93-98 should be filled out of the candidates belonging to scheduled castes tribes and backward classes. In other words; every third vacancy for promotion out of 5 should be treated as reserved for the members of the scheduled castes/tribes and vacancies occurring at numbers 15 and 75 should be reserved for the backward classes. (iii) The appointing authority shall be guided by the service record, qualifications, both academic and professional and length of service of the employees in that category for promotion. The competent authority may relax qualifications for promotion to the higher category in deserving cases with the permission of the Registrar, Cooperative Societies. The inter-se seniority shall be determined according to age, older being senior and if the case of such employees the date of birth of any two or more employee is also the same, then decision as taken by the appointing authority shall he final." According to the case of the petitioners and as per the sub- clause (d) of (iii) of the aforesaid rules 20% reservation is to be made for Scheduled Castes employees regarding their promotion. As per the averment made in para No. 6 of the petition vacancy at roster points have i been identified as below: 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 34, 38, 43, 48, 53, 58, 63, 73, 78, 83, 88, 93 and 98 The aforesaid rules were amended in 1982 which gave birth to lie amended provisions which are extracted here below: 9.8 Appointment by promotion - (i)The appointment by promotion to posts under all category shall be made from eligible employees working in lower category. (ii)In all promotion cases, reservation for the members of scheduled castes/Tribes and backward classes belonging to Class 111, IV shall be as under: (a) In all promotion cases, reservation for the members of Scheduled Castes/Tribes and backward classes belonging to Class III and IV shall be as prescribed by the State Govt. from time to time. (b) deleted (c) deleted (d) deleted (iii) The appointing authority shall be guided by the service record, qualifications, both academic and professional and length of service of the employees in that category for promotion. The competent authority may relax qualifications for promotion to higher category in deserving cases with the permission of the Registrar, Cooperative Societies. The inter se seniority shall be determined according to age, cider being senior and if in the case of such employees the date of birth of any two or more employees is also the same, then decision by the appointing authority shall be final.";