Vinod Kumar Pant vs State Of Uttarakhand & Others

Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Although, right to promotion is not a vested right, however, right to be considered for promotion has been held to be a fundamental right.

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.