- (1.) IN this writ application the petitioner has made the following prayers (a)To issue a writ of mandamus commanding upon the respondents and restraining them from downgrading the seniority of the petitioner from Sl. No. 143 to 160. (b) To restore the seniority of the petitioner at Sl. No. 143 in the seniority list of Deputy Secretaries/Additional Collectors. (c) To restrain the respondents to act upon the provisional seniority list issued vide Memo No. 1014 dated 20.02.2008. (d) To quash the seniority list of the officers of Jharkhand State Administrative Service published vide Memo No. 1014 dated 20.02.2008. (e) To take a final decision over the representation preferred by the petitioner and to publish the final seniority gradation list strictly in the light of the provisions of Bihar Reorganization Act, 2000 without adversely affecting the seniority of the petitioner.
(2.) THE questions raised by the petitioner in this writ application is whether the respondents can alter the position of the petitioner in the seniority list on the ground of mutual transfer of his services between two successor states. The petitioners case in brief is as follows :He was initially employed under the Bihar State Electricity Board and is presently working in the cadre of Jharkhand State Administrative Service on the substantive post of Additional District Magistrate (A.D.M.). On account of reorganization of the erstwhile State of Bihar in the year 2000, the service of the petitioner was initially allocated to the successor State of Bihar. Taking advantage of the benefit of the scheme enabling mutual transfer of service between employees of the two States namely the successor State of Jharkhand and the successor State of Bihar, as per the circular of Ministry of Personnel Public Grievance, Pension and Training, Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India vide its Circular No. 14/279/2002 dated 15.09.2004, the petitioner had also applied for his mutual transfer from Bihar to Jharkhand. The petitioners contention is that though the circular, while allowing the mutual transfer of service of employees between the two states had laid down six conditions for mutual cadre exchange of the employees between the two successor States, but none of the conditions made any stipulation regarding change of service conditions of the employees whose services are sought to be transferred on mutual cadre exchange. This, according to the petitioner, is also reflected in the Governments letter dated 21.05.2005 implying thereby that the seniority of such employees whose services were sought to be transferred from one successor State to another, will not be affected. While granting permission for the petitioners mutual transfer with one Mr. Kamaldeo Sharma, the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Government of Bihar vide its letter contained in Memo No. 8148 dated 19.07.2006, had observed that both the Government servants namely the petitioner and Mr. Kamaldeo Sharma have fulfilled all the six criteria laid down in the transfer scheme. Thus, while the petitioners cadre was allotted to the State of Jharkhand, his colleague Mr. Kamaldeo Sharma was allotted the Bihar cadre. The further contention of the petitioner is that the gradation list prepared on the basis of the merit list published by the Bihar Public Service Commission in the year 1999, was accordingly maintained though with the only stipulation that the petitioner shall not claim seniority over his colleague Mr. Kamaldeo Sharma and vice -versa due to the mutual transfer, meaning thereby that the petitioner shall be placed according to his seniority as determined in the year 1999. In confirmation of the above, the petitioners seniority in the provisional gradation list prepared b y the State of Jharkhand, was placed at Sl. No. 143. Such provisional gradation list was in conformity with the order dated 20.12.2007 passed by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Government of Jharkhand declaring that the seniority of the officers who have come to Jharkhand from Bihar, should be placed at the same position where it was placed in the year 1999 gradation list of undivided State of Bihar and the seniority shall not be changed unless otherwise directed/instructed by the Home (Special) Department, Government of Bihar which is the Nodal Department for exchange of cadre. The petitioner's grievance is that despite such settled situation, the respondent authorities, even without finalizing the earlier tentative gradation list, have published another provisional list on 20.02.2008 (Annexure -7) in which the petitioners seniority has been displaced and positioned at Sl. No. 160. Being aggrieved, the petitioner had submitted his representation for correction of his placement in the seniority list in accordance with the original cadre of the State Administrative Service, but the same did not find favour with the respondent authorities.
(3.) IT is this provisional gradation list (Annexure -9) which is under challenge by the petitioner.;