Inderjit Singh Sodhi And Others Vs The Chairman Punjab State Electricity Board And Another (Supreme Court of India)
We find that the appellants were promoted within 9 or 16 years from their initial appointment, therefore, they are not entitled to time bound promotional scale. Kirpal Singh Mangat and Raj Kumar Garg were appointed by direct recruitment as Assistant Engineer (Civil), whereas the appellants have been promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer (Civil). Hence, the Second Circular would not be applicable to them. The promotee employees are entitled to time bound promotion scale in terms of the First Circular only. Hence, the appellants are not entitled to claim any parity with Kirpal Singh Mangat and Raj Kumar Garg.
18. We find that some other employees have been granted benefit by virtue of the orders passed by the High Court. However, the principle laid down in the aforesaid judgments run counter to the subsequent judgment of this Court in Krishan Kumar Vij. The Special Leave Petition in many of these cases were dismissed but the such dismissals would not be a binding precedent for this Court. This argument was also raised and examined in Krishan Kumar Vij wherein this Court relied upon the judgment of this Court reported as Kunhayammed & Ors v. State Of Kerala (2000) 6 SCC 359. Therefore, the dismissal of special leave petitions is of no consequence on the question of law.
FULL TEXT OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT
1. The present appeals are directed against a common order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dated 09.04.2014 whereby the intra-Court appeals filed by the Punjab State Electricity Board were allowed and the order of Learned Single Judge, allowing the writ petitions for the grant of 9/16 years’ time bound revised promotional scale to the appellants was set aside.
2. The facts of the appeals are similar but for the sake of reference, facts are taken from the appeal preferred by Inderjit Singh Sodhi and others. The appellants herein have claimed time bound promotional scale while working as Assistant Engineers. They were promoted to the said post from the post of Junior Engineer. The services of the appellants are governed by the Punjab State Electricity Board Service of Engineers (Civil) Regulations, 19651.
3. The post of Assistant Engineer as per Regulation 7 is required to be filled up (1) by direct recruitment in terms of Regulation 9; (2) by promotion in terms of Regulation 10 or (3) by transfer of an officer already in services of a Government or another Government or Undertaking of the Government. The qualification required for direct recruitment under Regulation 9 is BE in Civil Engineering from a recognised institution or university. The Regulations further permit serving Section Officers who possess three- or four-years diploma in Civil Engineering and minimum 12 years qualifying service to apply for the post by way of direct recruitment. Regulation 10, on the other hand, provides for the promotion of the candidates with not less than 10 years’ experience subject to the condition that their number do not exceed 30 per cent of the total number of the cadre posts of the Assistant Engineers.
4. The relevant extract of the Civil Regulations read as under:-
“7. Recruitment to the Service shall be made by the Appointment Authority by any of the methods indicated below as may be determined in each case:-
(a) In case of posts of Asstt. Engineers.
(i) By direct appointment as provided in Regulation 9
(ii) By Promotion as provided in Regulation 10
(iii) By transfer of an officer already in the service of a Government or any other State Electricity Board or an Undertaking of Government.
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QUALIFICATION FOR DIRECT APPOINTMENT
9. No Person shall be appointed as AE (Civil) on training by direct appointment unless he has passed BE in Civil Engineering from recognised Institution/Univ.(Equivalency as notified by the Institution of Engineers Association of Indian Universities/ Pbi.University/Pbi.Univ. Calendar.)
PSEB Serving sectional officers (Civil) who possess 3/4 years diploma in Civil Engineering & have minimum 12 years qualifying service as Sectional Officer (Civil) with satisfactory service record shall also be eligible to apply for the post.
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QUALIFICATION FOR APPOIONTMENT BY PROMOTION
10.1 (a) Sectional Officers (Civil) under the Board having their record above average and with not less than 10 years experience to their credit shall be eligible for appointment to the service as Assistant Engineer, subject to the condition that their number does not exceed 20% of the total number of cadre posts of Assistant Engineers excluding the posts with B.D.M.B./B.C.B. and deputation posts or posts where PSEB cannot directly post its officers i.e. Hydel/Design Directorate, Chandigarh.
(b) Over and above this reservation, Sectional Officers (Civil) with requisite service/experience may be considered for additional vacancies of Assistant Engineers for field work without any fixed percentage.
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3. Persons appointed by promotion as Assistant Engineers under Sub Regulation (1) and (2) above shall not be eligible for promotion to the posts of Assistant Executive Engineer and above, unless they possess the qualification prescribed in Regulation-9.
4. 9% of the cadre posts of Assistant Engineers (Civil) shall be reserved for Departmental employees (Technical Subordinates and Drawing Staff) who while in the service of the Board have qualified Section (A) and (B) of A.M.I.E. Examination and have completed three years service. (This shall take effect from 15th April, 1983).”
5. The appellants were promoted to the post of Assistant Engineers under Regulation 7(a)(ii) read with Regulation 10 of the Civil Regulations as stated in para 4 of the writ petition which reads as under:
“4. That the petitioners were appointed as AE Class II service by way of promotion under Regulation 7(a)(ii) i.e. by way of promotion out of Junior Engineers Grade I Service: whereas Kirpal Singh Mangat and Raj Kumar Garg have been appointed under Regulation 7(a)(i) i.e. by way of direct recruitment provided under Regulation 9 of the PSEB Regulations 1965.”
6. Shri Kirpal Singh Mangat and Shri Raj Kumar Garg, who were junior to the appellants in the category of Assistant Engineer (Civil) were appointed by way of direct recruitment to such posts on the basis of their qualifications under Regulation 7(a)(i) of the Civil Regulations. A representation was submitted by the appellants claiming parity with Kirpal Singh and Raj Kumar Garg with regard to the time bound promotional scale. Such representation was decided on 06.11.2012, wherein, it was inter alia said to the following effect:
“And whereas, Er. Inderjit Singh Sodhi, AEE (Retd.) was promoted from the post of S.O./Civil to AE/Civil w.e.f. 19.8.77 as per avenue of his promotion in terms of Reg.7 read with Reg. 10 of PSEB Service of Engineers (Civil) Regulations, 1965 and further promoted as AEE(Civil) w.e.f. 22.3.85. Whereas Er. Kirpal Singh Mangat and Er. Raj Kumar Garg both AEE now senior Executive Engineer (Civil) while working as S.O./ Civil applied for the post of AE/Civil under direct recruitment category and were selected for the post of AE/Civil and given fresh appointment letter.
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And whereas, from the record it is evidence that interese these persons named Er. Inderjit Singh Sodhi, Er. Kirpal Singh and Er. Raj Kumar Garg came into service on 3.1.62, 12.9.64. 14.10.64 dates and all of them got an opportunity to go to the direct recruitment quota of Assistant Engineers. The Board advertised the posts for Assistant Engineers/Civil to be filled through direct recruitment in which the existing Board employees can also apply and in that contest Er. K. S. Mangat and Er. Raj Kumar Garg had also applied and got selected as Assistant Engineer/Civil and were given the new appointment letters from the effective dates and they continue to serve as per the Board regulations framed from time to time.
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7. Two sets of circulars were issued by the Punjab State Electricity Board for grant of time bound promotional scales w.e.f. 1.1.1986. The relevant extract from the circular dated 23.04.19902 reads thus:
“Features of the Scheme
1. The benefit of first time bound placement into promotional/devised promotional scale, as determined and notified on the basis of principles, enunciated above, would become available to an employee on completion of 9 (Nine) years of regular service on a post and the second time bound promotional/devised promotional scale would become available after completion of 16 (sixteen) years of service. If an employee gets normal promotion to the next higher post before completion of 9 years service from the date of direct recruitment then he will not be given first time bound promotional/devised promotional scale. He will be eligible to get second time bound promotional/devised promotional scale after the completion of 16 years of service counted from the date of direct recruitment provided he does not earn second normal promotion before the completion of the above said 16 years of service. Further an employee placed into the first promotional/devised promotional scale on account of his length of service will not be placed into the second promotional/devised promotional scale before completion of atleast three years from the date of his placement into the first promotional/devised promotional scale.
For example an employee who has completed 17 years of service in an inducting post and was not promoted upto 1.1.1986, will be allowed 1st time bound promotional/devised promotional scale on 1.1.1986 and the 2nd time bound promotional/ devised promotional scale will be admissible on 1.1.1989 i.e. after completion of three years service in the first time bound promotional/devised promotional scale.
2. At the time of placement in the time bound promotional/devised promotional scale to each employee in any cadre the prescribed period will be counted from the date of commencement of service to the lowest post on which regular appointment has been made through direct recruitment in the concerned cadre.
3. At the time of placement in the time bound promotional/devised promotional scale , the employee will be allowed promotional increment(s), as are admissible on promotion under the provisions of Regulations 8 of PSEB (Revised Pay) Regulations, 1988 and as amended from time to time.
4. If an employee already in the service of the Board is directly appointed to a higher post through open selection then for the purpose of grant of time bound promotional/devised promotional scale in that cadre counting of the period of service will commence from the date of joining the above post by direct recruitment.
5. The Board shall draw up schedule (s) indicating the lowest post(s) for direct recruitment in respect of various cadres for the purpose of this order, separately.
6. In cases, an employee has already availed of the benefit of placement to the time bound promotional/devised promotional scale(s) and is promoted to the next higher post, his pay would be fixed at the next stage in the same scale. In case he is promoted to a post which is lower than the scale in which he has already been placed on time bound promotional/devised promotional scale, he will not be entitled to any increment and continue to draw the pay of the scale in which he has already been placed.
7. In case of employees who do not fulfill the qualification/passing of examination essential for their promotion to the next higher post, they shall also be place into the time bound promotional/devised promotional scale to be specified by the Board in the schedule as referred to in para 5 (above).
8. No anomaly of pay would be claimed by any senior employee viz-a-viz any other employee merely on the strength of latter getting his placement into the time bound promotional/devised promotional scale.
9. The authority competent to grant time bound promotional/devised promotional scales after 9 years and 16 years service shall be the promoting authority of the employees concerned.
2. The Punjab State Elecy. Board has further decided to allow benefit of promotional increment(s) to an employee on completion of 23 years of regular service provided:-
(i) He has not been benefited by the scheme of 9/16 years time bound promotional scale.
(ii) He has not earned three regular promotions in his career.
(iii) He has not earned third promotion in his regular service between 16th and 23rd years of service.
(iv) The increments referred to in para-2 above are in the nature of advance promotional benefit to be absorbed in next regular promotion.”
8. Another Circular dated 24.05.19903 is part of the record of the other two appeals preferred by Surinder Kumar Pathak and R.K. Arora and another. It reads as under:-
“In supersession of office order no. 195/PRC/Fin-1988 dated 31.3.1990, the Punjab State Electricity Board is pleased to order that an Assistant Engineer/Assistant Executive Engineer would be placed in the next higher scale of Rs. 3000-5000 and allowed a minimum pay of Rs. 3500/- in the 10th year i.e. on completion of 9 (nine) years regular service as Assistant Engineer/Assistant Executive Engineer. Similarly, he would be placed in the next higher scale of Rs. 4500-6300 in the 17th (Seventeenth) year i.e. on completion of 16 (sixteen) years regular service as Assistant Engineer/Assistant Executive Engineer.
The next higher scale will thus be allowed as under:-
