Pramath Patnaik, J. - (1.) In the captioned writ application, prayer has been made for issuance of writ of certiorari for quashing the letter dated 08.06.2010, issued by the respondent no. 4, whereby the petitioner has been denied the monetary benefits in pursuance to the promotion to the post of the Deputy Director, Geology w.e.f. 15.11.2000 and to the post of the Additional Director, Geology w.e.f. 16.11.2004 and further prayer has been made for direction upon the respondents to pay the arrears of salary to the post of the Deputy Director, Geology w.e.f. 15.11.2000 and to the post of the Additional Director, Geology w.e.f. 16.11.2004 and on the basis of the last pay drawn, the pension of the petitioner be fixed and arrears thereof be paid to the petitioner.
(2.) The facts, as has been described in the writ application, in a nutshell are that the petitioner was appointed on the post of Geologist in the basic grade in the year 1976 and the petitioner was given the senior Grade of Geologist w.e.f. 11.05.1990 and worked on the said post of the senior Geologist. Thereafter, the petitioner was appointed as the Deputy Director, Geology vide notification dated 31.12.1996 and the petitioner took charge of the said post on 28.02.1997 and worked to the said post of the Deputy Director, Geology, continuously. The petitioner was not given regular promotion, but he was given acting In-charge of the said post of Deputy Director. Thereafter, in the year 2001, the petitioner was given charge of the Additional Director, Geology, Hazaribagh vide Notification dated 29.06.2001 and the petitioner discharged duties of the said post. Subsequently, the petitioner was made Director, In-charge of the Geology vide Notification dated-07th July, 2003, whereupon the petitioner took over the charge and worked on the said post of the Director till his superannuation i.e. on 31.03.2007. From the aforesaid facts, it is quite evident that the petitioner has discharged the duties of higher post of the Deputy Director, Additional Director and the Director though he was not given regular promotion on the said post till his retirement. In spite of request made by the petitioner for regular promotion to the aforesaid post, the grievance of the petitioner was not redressed. The petitioner was communicated by the respondent no. 4 vide letter dated 08.06.2010 that he shall be entitled to get the benefit of promotion only from the date of taking over charge to the post as per Annexure-6 to the writ petition. Being aggrieved by the order passed by the respondents, the petitioner has been constrained to approach this Court for redressal of his grievances under Articles 226 of the Constitution of India.
(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted with vehemence that the petitioner is entitled to be promoted to the post of the Deputy Director, Additional Director and the Director, but because of the laches on the part of the respondents, the regular promotion has not been effected by misconstruing the provisions of Rule 54 of the Jharkhand Service Code, which does not deal with promotion with retrospective effect, therefore, the action of the respondents is violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submits that the impugned order passed by the respondents, dated 08.06.2010, being illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction, is liable to be quashed. In support of his contentions, learned counsel for the petitioner has referred to the decision rendered in the case of Dr. Sukumar Das Gupta-versus-State of Jharkhand & Another, 2009 4 JCR 565 (Jhr) and submits that in view of the aforesaid decision, the case of the petitioner is squarely covered, therefore, the petitioner is entitled to the benefit, as has been extended to the petitioner in the aforesaid writ application.;