Uttarakhand High Court
WPSB/350/2021 on 23 August, 2021
IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND
AT NAINITAL
ON THE 23RD DAY OF AUGUST, 2021
BEFORE:
HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE MANOJ KUMAR TIWARI
AND
HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE ALOK KUMAR VERMA
Writ Petition (S/B) No. 350 of 2021
BETWEEN:
Vinod Kumar Pant. ....Petitioner
(By Mr. Anil Kumar Joshi, Advocate)
AND:
State of Uttarakhand & others. ...Respondents
(By Mr. Pradeep Joshi, Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the State
of Uttarakhand/respondent no. 1 and Mr. Bhupendra Singh Bisht,
Advocate for respondent nos. 2 & 3)
This Writ Petition coming on for hearing this day,
Hon'ble Shri Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J. delivered the
following Judgment:
JUDGEMENT
Petitioner was regularly promoted as
Superintending Engineer on 09.02.2017, thus he
has completed more than four years of service as
Superintending Engineer. Petitioner fulfils all
conditions of eligibility for promotion to the post of
Chief Engineer and he is officiating as Chief
Engineer since 15.01.2021.
2. According to the petitioner, there are
four sanctioned posts of Chief Engineer in
Uttarakhand Pey Jal Nigam and all of them are
lying vacant since 2018, but, no promotion
exercise has been initiated to supply these four
vacancies.
3. By means of this writ petition, petitioner
has sought a direction to the State Government to
hold promotion exercise for filling the post of Chief
Engineer.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioner points
out that petitioner is due to retire in the month of
October, 2021. He has drawn attention of this
Court to Regulation 14 of the Uttarakhand Peyjal
Sansadhan Vikas Evam Nirman Nigam Engineering
Service Regulations, 2012, which reads as under:-
"14. Determination of vacancies. The
appointing authority shall determine the
number of vacancies to be filled during the
course of the year of recruitment, as also the
number of vacancies to be reserved for the
candidate belonging to the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes and other categories to the
State of Uttarakhand, under regulation 6.
5. It is an admitted position that the post
of Chief Engineer has to be filled 100% by
promotion and direct recruitment is not
permissible under the Rules.
6. Since all the four posts of Chief Engineer
are lying vacant since long, therefore, there
appears to be inaction on the part of the
competent authorities in initiating promotion
exercise in terms of the provisions contained in
Service Regulations.
7. Although, right to promotion is not a
vested right, however, right to be considered for
promotion has been held to be a fundamental
right.
8. As petitioner is eligible for promotion to
the post of Chief Engineer and all the posts of
Chief Engineer are lying vacant since long and
petitioner is also due to retire within next two
months, therefore, having regard to the facts and
circumstances of the case, the writ petition is
disposed of with the following directions:
I. Secretary, Drinking Water and
Sanitation Department, Uttarakhand
shall constitute a Selection Committee
and shall also place the service record,
including ACRs of all eligible persons for
promotion as Chief Engineer, before the
Selection Committee, within ten days
from the date of production of certified
copy of this order.
II. The Selection Committee shall
consider the claim of all eligible persons
as per the provisions contained in
Service Regulations and prepare a final
merit list within ten days thereafter.
III. The merit list prepared by Selection
Committee along with recommendation
of the Selection Committee shall be sent
to the Appointing Authority, within next
one week and the Appointing Authority
shall issue promotion order, within one
week thereafter.
(MANOJ KUMAR TIWARI, J.)
(ALOK KUMAR VERMA, J.)
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