- (1.) The instant intra-court appeal is directed against the order/judgment dated 13.12.2018 passed by learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) No.2614 of 2017 whereby and whereunder the relief sought for by the writ-petitioner/respondent, for a direction upon the respondents to grant E-6 grade promotion to the writ-petitioner at least with effect from the date her juniors have been promoted including Mr. Biswabash Behuria promoted with effect from 20.09.2013 and effective date of her promotion to all the earlier grades be amended in the like manner so as to make it at par with her juniors, has been allowed holding the writ-petitioner entitled for the same benefits as has been given to that of Mr. Biswabash Behuria and according to the report, Mr. Behuria and the writ-petitioner stand on the same footing.
(2.) Before entering into the legality and propriety of the impugned order, it requires to refer herein some factual aspects which read hereunder: The writ-petitioner was appointed as Welfare Officer (Trainee) in Coal India Limited vide appointment letter dated 11.06.1994. In the aforesaid offer of appointment it was stipulated that the writ-petitioner will be on training for a period of two years. During the training period, she was to be paid pay scale of E-1 grade with other allowances admissible to the executives of Coal India Limited as per the condition stipulated under Clause 3.2. During the period of training she was eligible to leave etc. as mentioned in Schedule-II (Clause 3.4). Schedule-II to the appointment letter provides for various categories of leave, including extraordinary leave to be granted after the casual or medical leave would be exhausted. It further provides under the condition stipulated under Clause-4 of the appointment letter about appointment to regular post carrying higher pay scale for a period of one year on probation, after completion of training. After appointment of the writ-petitioner, All India Merit List for Welfare Officers (Trainee) was published in the month of June, 1994, in which the name of writ-petitioner stands figured at serial No.11. The writ-petitioner joined on 23.06.1994 and assumed charge and was given posting in Central Coalfields Limited at Ranchi vide order dated 09.07.1994 issued by the Central Coalfields Limited. Subsequently, a Global Seniority List was published on 03.09.1996 and as on 24.04.1996, under E-1 Grade, the name of the writ-petitioner figured at serial No.78. The seniority position was duly set out in accordance with the position in the original All India Merit List. The writ-petitioner, thereafter, was promoted to E-2 and E-3 Grades which were in the nature of cluster promotion and not vacancy based and as such, not affected by the inter se seniority position. Subsequently, the promotion to the E-4 grade, which was the first vacancy based promotion, was granted to the writ-petitioner on 15.02.2010 by Coal India Limited as was notified on 19.02.2010 by the Central Coalfields Limited. The grades were redesignated and the old E-4 got redesignated as E-5 and the old E-5 got redesignated as E-6. Subsequently, the provisional list for E-5 grade was issued on 02.05.2016 showing the position of writ-petitioner at serial No.41 whereas the name of Mr. Behuria was shown at serial No.2 even though Mr. Behuria was much junior to the writ-petitioner as would appear from the Global Seniority List of E-1 grade wherein Mr. Behuria figured at serial No.120 as against the writ-petitioner whose name figured at serial No.78. The writ-petitioner, subsequently, came to know that the said Mr. Behuria who was by then posted at Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) another subsidiary of Coal India Limited was being subjected to adverse effect on seniority owing to few days of being on leave without pay during his training and he had approached the Hon'ble Orissa High Court where the direction was passed, in pursuance thereto, her seniority was made to be affected adversely on account of the fact that she had likewise been on leave without pay for a few days during her training period, which was due to maternity reasons in her case with strict advise of gynecologist for bed confinement and was duly sanctioned and authorized leave, therefore, the writ-petitioner had made representation before the Chairman, Coal India Limited for redressal of her grievance but without any response to the said representation, Mr. Behuria was promoted to E-6 grade vide Coal India Limited's order dated 20.02.2017 but the writ-petitioner's case had not been considered as because due to her position in the seniority list which was incorrectly maintained by the respondents/appellants, as such, the writ-petitioner approached to this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for declaration about her entitlement to be treated as per the seniority position in the original All India Merit List (Annexure-2 to the writ petition) and the Global Seniority List prepared on 24.04.1996 for E-1 grade (Annexure-4 to the writ petition) vis-a-vis the others named in the seniority list and accordingly she also sought for a declaration holding her entitlement to be granted promotion in the E-6 grade as well as to modify the effective date of promotion in the previous grades at least with effect from the date the same has been granted to the writ-petitioner's juniors including Mr. Behuria.
(3.) The writ petition has been allowed by the learned Single Judge against which the present intra-court appeal has been filed inter alia on the ground that the learned Single Judge has failed to take into consideration that in the case of Mr. Behuria, the Hon'ble Orissa High Court had taken cognizance of letter dated 18/19.05.2008 of the then General Manager (A & EE), MCL which stated that there is no record in the file relating to extension of training period of Mr. Behuria although the fact is that the training period of Mr. Behuria has been extended with proper approval and the same was also available in the file and also produced before the Hon'ble Court while filing the review application but the review application was dismissed on technical ground, namely, the documents was produced for the first time in review application, further, on the ground that the learned Single Judge has not taken into consideration the condition stipulated under Clause 17.1 of the agreement contained in Circular No.538 dated 19.05.1980 in the Common Coal Cadre which provides that the committee recommends that a common deemed date of entry into grades shall be determined for new recruits appointed in a batch on a particular date in a company to be fixed in regards to the date of joining of the first person from the same batch and the said deemed date is to be applicable only in respect of direct recruits whose training period is not extended for any reason. The other ground that the learned Single Judge has not considered the fact about the knowledge of the respondent, writpetitioner herein, that in application dated 24.01.1997 submitted during her training period, in case of her proceeding under leave without pay she would lose her seniority as per the existing rules as also on the ground that the learned Single Judge has not appreciated the fact that the case of the writ-petitioner does not stand on similar footing to that of Mr. Behuria. Further the ground of negative equality has also been agitated.;