Govt Policy Granting Promotion To Remove Stagnation Must Be Applied Uniformly: Allahabad High Court
While dealing with a case of Telephone Operators working in Board of Revenue being promoted to the post of Lower Division Assistant in Civil Secretariat, the Allahabad High Court has held that government policy granting promotion to remove stagnation must be applied uniformly.
The U.P. Board of Revenue Ministerial Service Rules, 1983 govern service conditions of the employees working in Revenue Board. However, these do not include the post of Telephone Operators which were sanctioned in 1986. Since there was no promotion from the post of Telephone Operators, State Government, by order dated 06.09.1988, provided that Telephone Operators could be promoted to the post of Lower Division Assistant in the Civil Secretariat which were vacant due to non-appointment by the Public Service Commission. This Government order was brought out to remove stagnation on the post of Telephone Operators.
Since benefit of the aforesaid Government Order had been extended to some employees, Justice Irshad Ali held,
“Once the benefit of the aforesaid Government Order has been extended to similarly situated employees, denial of the same benefit to the petitioners, without any rational basis, amounts to hostile discrimination and is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.”
Petitioners were working as Telephone Operators and sought promotion to the post of LDA. However, their claim for promotion was rejected. Accordingly, they approached the High Court seeking parity with those who had been earlier promoted as LDA from the post of Telephone Operator.
The Court held that since the post of Telephone Operator was created after the U.P. Board of Revenue Ministerial Service Rules, 1983 were adopted, it cannot be said that the post and promotion from the said post were deliberately left out from the Rules.
Since others had been granted promotion from the post of Telephone Operators to the post of Lower Division Assistant, the Court held that promotion of Telephone Operators to the post of Lower Division Assistant (LDA) is provided by Government Order dated 06.09.1988. It held that mere absence of statutory rules cannot be a ground to deny promotion to Telephone Operators.
Noting that vacant posts were available for promotion of the petitioners, the Court held that denial of promotion to the petitioners was arbitrary and discriminatory, hence, unsustainable.
Allowing the writ petition, the Court directed the respondents to consider petitioners for the promotion to the post of LDA in accordance with law.
Case title: Smt. Kavita Chaturvedi D/O D.K.Chaturvedi And Another v. State Of U.P. Through Secy. Revenue Lko. And Ors.