S.N. Pathak, J. - (1.) Heard the parties.
(2.) Petitioner has approached this Court with a prayer for direction to the respondents to accord regular promotion to the petitioner to the post of Superintending Engineer with effect from the date of notification i.e. 06.07.2012 or from the date juniors to him were given promotion. Petitioner has further prayed for a direction to the respondents to sanction the benefit of 3rd MACP from the due date i.e. 15.07.2017 on completion of 30 years of service and further to pay the amount of arrears accrued consequent to grant of MACP and regular promotion to the post of Superintending Engineer.
(3.) Bereft of unnecessary details, the petitioner joined the post of Assistant Engineer on 15.07.1987 in the erstwhile State of Bihar, now the State of Jharkhand in Drinking Water and Sanitation Department and rendered his serviced to the full satisfaction of the respondent-authorities. The petitioner was granted 1st ACP w.e.f. 09.08.1999 and thereafter, regular promotion was granted to the petitioner to the post of Executive Engineer w.e.f. 15.11.2000. Thereafter, the petitioner was granted the benefits of 2nd MACP on the due date. The petitioner discharged duties on the said post at different division of Jharkhand and subsequently, elevated to higher grade i.e. to the post of Superintending Engineer Incharge since 10.07.2012. It is the further case of the petitioner that in the year 2015 i.e. on 05.10.2015, a meeting of Departmental Promotion Committee (for short "DPC") was convened, wherein the name of petitioner for promotion to the post of Superintending Engineer was also considered and it was decided to keep it pending with direction to obtain report from Vigilance/ Lokayukta and till then, one post was kept reserved for the petitioner in view of pending allegations pertaining to his posting as Executive Engineer at Jamtara/ Dhanbad Division-1 and Palamau Division. It is the further case of the petitioner that again a meeting of DPC was held on 29.05.2018 to consider and grant the admissible benefit of ACP/ MACP to officers of the Engineering Service Cadre of Drinking Water and Sanitation Department in which name of the petitioner was also considered for 3rd MACP along with many of the Officers in view of different Circular of the State, which have been either over looked or ignored while deciding and making recommendation in favour of the petitioner. The petitioner submitted his representation dated 24.07.2018 mentioning therein the admissibility of his regular promotion as per the instruction contained in different circulars of the State Govt. The respondents without finalizing the cadre promotion to the post of Superintending Engineer, convened the meeting of DPC for consideration of promotion from the post of Superintending Engineer to the post of Chief Engineer on 24.08.2018 and again, the name of petitioner was left out of jurisdiction as he was not accorded regular promotion to the rank of Superintending Engineer for which the petitioner was not at fault. When no consideration was shown, the petitioner again submitted his representation vide letter dated 28.02.2019 mentioning therein that out of the two charges levelled by the Lokayukta, first pertaining to the year 2008-09 was irrelevant as he was transferred a year back i.e. on 09.07.2007 itself from Palamau division to Head Works division Ranchi and the next charge of making 100% payment against installation of fluoride attachment plant being wrong as only 90% payment was made to the contractor in consonance of the work order instead of 100% mentioned in the so-called charge sheet of the Lokayukta, whereafter, the Lokayukta declared him not guilty in the Court verbally. Petitioner further requested in his representation dated 28.02.2019 (Annexure-6) that his regular promotion is admissible in the light of govt. resolution itself and his career is being affected adversely for want of promotion. However, when no heed was paid to his said request, petitioner has been constrained to knock the door of this Court.;