Ritu Bahri, J. (Oral)—
C.M. No. 4025-2018
1. Application is allowed as prayed for.
2. Accordingly, reply filed on behalf of respondent Nos. 5 and 6 is taken on record.
C.W.P. 488 of 2016
3. Petitioner is seeking writ in the nature of certiorari for setting aside impugned promotion letter/order dated 07.11.2008 of respondent Nos. 5 and 6 as well as impugned letter dated 01.09.2015 vide which the claim of petitioner for grant of deemed date of promotion as SDO from the date on which respondent No. 5 and 6 were promoted, has been declined.
4. On notice, a reply has been filed on behalf of respondent Nos. 1 to 4 admitting the fact that the petitioner had passed B.E. (Electrical) in may, 2002 and become eligible for inclusion of his name in the tentative ranking list of Engineering Subordinates, which is to be prepared on 1 January 2003. Prior to that ranking list of employee who had passed B.Ed Degree was prepared in January, 2002 wherein no ranking number was allocated to the petitioner and the name of respondent Nos. 5 and 6 are appearing at No. 21 and 20 respectively.
5. Respondent Nos. 5 and 6 were promoted on 07.11.2008 (P-1) to the post of Assistant Engineer where only two post of AE from Engineering Subordinates possessing AMIE/BE qualification in 12.5% quota as contained in regulation 9of Punjab State Electricity Board Service Engineers (Electricity) Recruitment 1965 and as per Government notification dated 20.10.1993. The tentative ranking list stood on 01.01.2002 and the petitioner never objected on tentative ranking list prepared and circulated on 06.11.2002.
6. As per reply filed by respondent Nos. 5 and 6, it has been stated that the petitioner had passed B.E. (Electrical) on 31.12.2002 and as per Rules, he was required to complete 05 years of post qualification experience and thereafter only, petitioner would become eligible to be included in the ranking list of promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer/Sub Divisional Officer in DHBVNL under 12.5% quota meant for Degree holders. As per regulations, 65% posts of AE are filled by direct recruitment and 35% are filled through promotion from the post of J.E. Out of 35% promotion posts, 22.5% posts of A.E/S.D.O. are filled from J.E. with 05 years of service while remaining 12.5% posts are filled from those Engineering Subordinates/JE who possess AMIE/BE qualification with 05 years of service as such. Referred has been made to judgment of Hon'ble Apex Court in a case of Shiba Shankar Mohapatra v. State of Orissa, 2011 (1) SCT 359 wherein it has been settled that once the seniority public ranking has been fixed and it remains in existence for a reasonable time, the same could not be disturbed.
7. Learned counsel for respondent Nos. 5 and 6 has then referred to LPA No. 1515-2015 and connected matters titled as Sukhdev Singh v. HPGCL, decided on 09.08.2018 wherein similar issue has been decided and this Court has observed that the Engineering Subordinates who possess such qualification earlier in time have to be ranked senior and those who possess such qualification in the next year up to 1 January are to be ranked junior.
8. The petitioner has not filed any replication to the written statements filed on behalf of the respondents and the judgment passed by this Court in Sukhdev Singh's case (supra) is directly applicable to the facts of the present case.
9. Dismissed.