MUHAMMAD IRSHAD KHAN (MEMBER)--It is the case of the appellant that he was a confirmed Telephone Operator when in the year 1976, he was selected on seniority-cum-fitness basis for training in the Engineering Supervisors Course and consequential promotion to that post. The appellant passed the said Training Course in the year 1977 and had also successfully undergone training of International Gateway Exchange. Te respondent No. 1 issued an order, dated 14-4-1983 whereby several juniors to the appellant were promoted to the post of Engineering Supervisor but he was left out. Aggrieved thereby he filed the present appeal after exhausting the departmental remedy.
2. It was urged that the appellant was wrongly superseded in violation of rules 15 and 16 of the Engineering Supervisors' Recruitment Rules, 1972, whereby a Telephone Operator's selection for Engineering Supervisors' Course is the selection for promotion and the completion of course by him and his examination by the training centre and in that having been declared successful and qualified is conclusively the fulfilment of the requirements for promotion to the post of Engineering Supervisor; and after completion of such process no second selection for promotion to the post of Engineering Supervisor is envisaged by the Rules. The appellant was thus wrongly superseded by his juniors.
3. The stand taken by the respondent-Department is that the eligible candidates for promotion to the post of Engineering Supervisor are required to be approved by a Departmental Promotion Committee and since the appellant was not cleared by the Departmental Promotion Committee, he was not promoted.
4. We have carefully considered the case. The relevant rules applicable to the case are rules 15 and 16 of the Engineering Supervisors Recruitment Rules, 1972, which are reproduced below:-- "15. Promotion to the posts reserved for departmental candidates, vide rule 4 (ii) shall be made in accordance with the following procedure:--
(i) The heads of the Regions shown in Appendix 'A to these rules will select candidates, on seniority- cum-fitness basis from amongst the persons holding the posts mentioned in rule 2(f) of these rules including those deputed to other Regions/Units, and will send them to the Training Centre for training in Engineering Supervisor's Courses appropriate to the section(s) as prescribed in Appendix 'E', The training in each course will be for a period of 9 months in case of General Branch and 12 months in case of Carrier and Wireless/ Microwave branches, which can, however, be increased or decreased or by orders of the Director --General.
(ii) The trainees after completion of the course will be examined by the Training Centre and the names of qualified candidates will be intimated to the Regions concerned.
16(i) On successful completion of the courses appropriate to their respective sections, the candidates will be brought one panel to be maintained section-wise and in the order of their original seniority, and will be appointed as Engineering Supervisors on probation for a period of one year as and when a vacancy occurs in the respective section against the quota fixed for the departmental candidates.
5. A plain reading of the above provisions would show that the selection for promotion to the post of Engineering Supervisors is required to be done first by the Head of the Regions on seniority-cum- fitness basis. It is-appropriate at this stage that the Head of the Region may avail the assistance or aid of the Departmental Promotion Committee. But after such selected candidates are deputed to training, complete their course and are examined by the training centre, such successful candidates are to be brought on a panel to be maintained section-wise and in the order of their original seniority and are to be appointed as Engineering Supervisors on probation. It is thus quite clear that the rules do not envisage any clearance by the Departmental Promotion Committee after a successful completion of the course. This being so, after successful completion of the course, the appellant became legally entitled to his promotion to the post of Engineering Supervisor and at that stage, reference to his case for clearance by the Departmental Promotion Committee was uncalled for. The appellant could not, therefore, be legally superseded on the recommendations of the Departmental Promotion Committee held after his successful completion of the course.
6. For the foregoing reasons the appeal is accepted, the impugned order is set aside and it is directed that the appellant be promoted to the post of Engineering Supervisor against the first available vacancy.
7. No order as to costs. The security deposited by the appellant should be refunded to him.
A. E.