Delhi High Court
Shri Bhupender Kumar And Ors. vs The Secretary And Ors. on 2 March, 2006
Author: M Mudgal
Bench: M Mudgal, B Chaturvedi
JUDGMENT
Mukul Mudgal, J.
1. Rule DB.
2. With the consent of counsel for the parties, the matter is taken up for final hearing.
3. The petitioners challenge the order dated 19.4.2004 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal(hereinafter referred to as the CAT) in OA. No. 945 of 2004 in the present writ petition. The petitioners belong to the running staff of the Railways and their duties are sensitive and involved public safety as per the plea of the petitioners. The petitioners today are working as Power Controllers.
4. The petitioners are concerned about de-reservation of the seven posts of Loco Inspectors, two for Scheduled Castes category and five for scheduled Tribes category, which, according to the plea of the petitioners, have remained unfilled for the last about 20 years. The petitioners have relied on the plea of the respondents in their counter-affidavit that the provision for de-reservation in safety category only was reintroduced in the year 1999. The petitioners raised their grievance. Their plea is that de-reservation of the posts of Loco Inspectors was sought in the year 2003 as per the provision of de-reservation reintroduced in the year 1999.
5. The Tribunal has rejected this plea of the petitioners by observing that only if the de-reservation is necessary, the right of consideration would arise. The Tribunal also observed that if the department feels that the de- reservation is not required, such a right cannot be claimed by the applicants.
6. In our view, the Tribunal has not dealt with the real grievance raised by the petitioners that their plea for de-reservation of the posts of Loco Inspects was not considered by the competent authorities pursuant to the provision for de-reservation introduced in 1999. The pleadings of the respondents nowhere states that the application of the petitioners for de- reservation of five posts of Loco Inspectors, which were reserved for ST was considered. These five posts, according to the petitioners reserved for the ST candidates, were not filled up for the last 20 years and the petitioners were, thus, entitled to have their plea for de-reservation of the five posts of Loco Inspectors as per the 1999 provision considered jointly. Since we find that no consideration of the plea of the petitioners for de-reservation of five posts of Loco Inspector in the category of ST has at all been done by the respondents, we direct that the respondents shall, in accordance with the DOPT provision of 1999, consider and dispose of the plea of the petitioners for de-reservation of the five posts of Loco Inspectors, which are reserved for ST candidate on or before 31st of July, 2006. The order of such consideration of the petitioners' plea shall be communicated to the petitioners through their counsel on or before 20th of August, 2006.
7. With the above directions, the writ petition stands allowed to the extent indicated with no order as to costs.
