VIRENDER KUMAR GENERAL MANAGER NORTHERN RAILWAYS NEW DELHI Vs. AVINASH CHANDRA CHADHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) LEAVE granted.

(2.) THE appeal is filed by the General Manager, Northern Railways against the decision dated 14/09/1988 of the Central Administrative Tribunal, New Delhi.

(3.) IT appears that the respondents'grievance in the writ petition filed before the Delhi High Court was that their seniority in the cadre of Relieving Transportation Assistants was not correctly fixed according to the qauota rule of 25:75, either because the quota rule was not observed properly or the unfilled vacancies in the 25 per cent quota reserved for them were not carried forward from 1954 onwards. Hence, they wanted their seniority list as Traffic Apprentices to be recast according to quota and rota rule, and the seniority list which was prepared allegedly contrary to the said, rule quashed. The learned Single Judge had rejected the petition on the ground that they had approached the Court too late and, therefore, their petition suffered from laches. The Division Bench in Letters Patent Appeal No. 220 of 1972 did not agree with the learned Single Judge and decided the matter on merits, and gave the finding that the Northern Railways had for the first time communicated by their letter of 26/12/1967 to all the Divisional Superintendents that it was decided that the seniorit of Traffic. Apprentices appointed prior to 18/12/1963 would be determined from the date of their promotion to the grade of Rs. 250-380 and not according to their quota against the vacancies which occurred from 1-4-1954 onwards, the date from which the direct recruitment of the Traffic Apprentices was permitted. The Court held that according to the correct interpretation of the various letters of the Railway Administration, Traffic Apprentices were to be assigned seniority, vis-a-vis rankers (promotees) according to their roster position, taking into account the positions reserved for them, viz., 25 per cent of the actual annual vacancies with effect from 1-4-1954 carried forward in subsequent years. The Court also held that the Railway administration subsequently modified its instructions contained in their letter of 26/12/1967 and issued another letter on 19/04/1968 stating that the Traffic Apprentices would be deemed to have been promoted from the dates they were eligible provided vacancies were available in the particular year for their absorption and that their interests would be protected by giving benefit of pro forma fixation of pay etc. a further letter of December 18, 1968 thereafter followed from the headquarters of the Northern Railways in which it was made clear that the seiority had to be fixed with reference to the dates from which the Traffic Apprentices would have been promoted in the grade of Rs. 250-380.00 had the quota of the vacancies from 1954 onwards always been calculated correctly, i.e., the vacancies from 1954 onwards should always have been taken into account to work out 25 per cent quota for the Traffic Apprentices. On these findings, the Division Bench stated as follows: