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TMI Blog1967 (8) TMI 117X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... manding respondents 1 & 2 to consider the petitioner's claim as the senior-most officer in Rajasthan to be promoted to the post of Inspector General of Police. Cause has been shown by Mr. C. B. Agarwala on behalf of the State of Rajasthan and the other respondents to whom notice of the rule was ordered to be given. The petitioner, Sri Sant Ram Sharma was appointed to the Indian Police Service on June 10, 1952. On September 8, 1954 by a notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, the Indian Police Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1954 came into force. Rule 6 of the said Rules required that a Gradation List of all Police Officers in the State should be maintained to ascertain their respective seniority. Accordingly, a Gradation List was prepared by the State of Rajasthan in August, 1955. In this Gradation List, the position of the petitioner was 5th. Sri Hanuman Sharma was shown as occupying the 7th position, Sri Sultan Singh stood 14th and the position of Sri Ganesh Singh was 17th. Rule 3 of the Indian Police Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1954 required that every officer shall be assigned a year the allotment in accordance with the provisio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ice. The allegations of the petitioner have been controverted by the State of Rajasthan in its counter-affidavit. It was said that the posts of Inspector General of Police, Additional Inspector General of Police and Deputy Inspector General of Police are selection posts which carry pay above the time-scale of pay and for appointment to these selection-posts an officer is chosen not merely on the basis of his rank in the Gradation List but on the record of his merit and past experience in the Police Department. The petitioner was appointed to the Indian Police Service on June 10, 1952 but even before that date Sri Hanuman Sharma, Sri Sultan Singh and Sri Ganesh Singh were appointed to the Indian Police Service in 1951 and they were already officiating as Deputy Inspector General of Police. Sri Hanuman Sharma and Sri Sultan Singh were officiating since April 22, 1952 and Sri Ganesh Singh since May 17, 1952. The petitioner was confirmed in the Senior Scale of Indian Police Service on June 10, 1954 but the other three officers were confirmed in the Senior Scale of the Indian Police Service on March 24, 1953, i.e., more than a year before the confirmation of the petitioner. When the qu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fines a "senior post" to mean "a post Included under item 1 of each Schedule to the Indian Police Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 1955 or any post declared equivalent thereto by the State Government concerned". Rule 3 deals with the assignment of year of allotment and reads as follows:- "(1) Every officer shall be assigned a year of allotment in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained in this rule. (2)The year of allotment of an officer in service at the commencement of these rules shall be the same as has been assigned to him or may be assigned to him by the Central Government in accordance with the orders and instructions in force immediately before the commencement of these rules: (3)The year of allotment of an officer appointed to the Service after the commencement of these rules, shall be- (a) where the officer is appointed to the Service on the results of a competitive examination, the year following the year in which such examination was held; (b) where the officer is appointed to the Service by promotion in accordance with rule 9 of the Recruitment Rules, the year of allotment of the junior-most among the officers recruited to the Service ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Inspector General of Police, Additional Inspector General of Police and Inspector General of Police in Rajasthan State are selection posts and outside the junior and senior timescales of pay. Rule 2(a) provides that 'Cadre' and 'Cadre post' shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Indian Police Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954. Rule 3 prescribes the time-scales of pay admissible to members of the Service and reads as follows: "3. Time-scales of pay-The time-scales of pay admissible to a member of the Service shall be as follows: - Junior Scale-Rs. 350-350-380-380-30-590-E.B.--30-770---40-850 (19 years). Senior Scale.-Rs. 600 (6th year under)-40-1.0001,000-1,050-1,050-1,100-1,100-1.150 (22) years. Selection Grade-Rs. .1,250. Provided that a member of the Service holding a post in the senior time-scale may be appointed to a post in the selection grade and where he is so appointed, he shall be entitled to draw pay of the post in the selection grade; Provided further that a member of the Service to whom any other time-scale of pay was admissible under any order in force immediately before the commencement of these rules shall continue to draw pay in that scale". ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... C. Wadhwa v. Union of India.(1) But the ratio of that case has no bearing on the question presented for determination in the present case. The question involved in that case was whether under the relevant rules governing the Indian Police Service, a member thereof was entitled as of right to be promoted to a post in the senior scale as and when a vacancy (except a vacancy in the promotion quota) arose therein and no one senior to him was available for that post. It was held by the majority of the learned Judges that a consideration of the various rules would make it clear beyond doubt that a person in the junior time-scale of the service is as much a cadre officer as one holding a post in the senior time-scale or a post above the timescale and the whole scheme of the rules indicated that a person in the junior scale of pay had a right to hold a post on the senior scale of pay subject to the availability of a post in the senior scale of pay and his seniority in the junior scale of pay. At page 627 of the Report Mudholkar, J. in the course of his judgment expressly observed-"we should not be understood as saying that this right extends to the appointment to a post carrying pay above ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... motion to selection grade posts as follows: "I am directed to say that the Government of India have recently had. occasion to consider the question of the principles to be followed in the matter of promotion of I.P.S. Officers to the selection Grade when some of the officers junior in service were approved and given officiating chances in such selection grades earlier than their seniors. It is, of course, a well established principle that promotions to the Selection Grade or a selection post is to be based primarily on merit and not seniority in the service .............................." We proceed to consider the next contention of Mr. N.C. Chatterjee that in the absence of any statutory rules governing promotions to selection grade posts the Government cannot issue administrative instructions and such administrative instructions cannot impose any restrictions not found in the Rules already framed. We are unable to accept this argument as correct. It is true that there is no specific provision in the Rules laying down the principle of promotion of junior or senior grade officers to selection grade posts. But that does not mean that till statutory rules are framed in this behalf ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it has power to make laws with respect to the appointment or succession of Chiefs or Headmen and this would naturally include the power to remove them. But it does not follow from this that the appointment or removal of a Chief is a legislative act or that no appointment or removal can be made without there being first a law to that effect. Further once the power of appointment falls within the power of administration of the district the power of removal of officers and others so appointed would necessarily follow as a corollary. The Constitution could not have intended that all administration in the autonomous districts should come to a stop till the Governor made regulations under para. 19(1)(b) or till the District Council passed laws under para. 3(1)(g). The Governor in the first instance and the District Councils thereafter were vested with the power to carry on the administration and that in our opinion included the power to appoint and remove the personnel for carrying on the administration. Doubtless when regulations are made under para. 19(1)(b) or laws are passed under para. 3(1) with respect to the appointment or removal of the personnel of the administration, the admin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... onsider Shri Hanuman Sharma and Sri Sultan Singh senior to me by the new type of seniority they have invented for their benefit". Even though there is no specific allegation by the petitioner that there was no consideration of his case, respondent No. 1 has definitely asserted in paragraphs 23, 25, 40 and 44 of the counter-affidavit that at the time of promotion of respondents 3 & 4 to the selection posts of Deputy Inspector General of Police and of Inspector General of Police the case of the petitioner was considered. We are therefore of the opinion that the petitioner is unable to substantiate his argument that there was no consideration of his case at the time of promotion of respondents 3 & 4 to the selection posts. We must therefore proceed on the footing that respondent No. 1 had considered the case of the petitioner and taken into account the record, experience and merit of the petitioner at the time of the promotion of respondents 3 & 4 to the selection grade posts. It is therefore not possible to accept the argument of Mr. N. C. Chatterjee that there was any violation of the constitutional guarantee under Arts. 14 and 16 of the Constitution in the present case. Mr. N. C. C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s automatically awarded the promotion. Within limits, seniority is entitled to consideration as one criterion of selection. It tends to eliminate favouritism or the suspicion thereof; and experience is certainly a factor in the making of a successful employee. Seniority is given most weight in promotions from the lowest to other subordinate positions. As employees move up the ladder of responsibility, it is entitled to less and less weight. When seniority is made the sole determining factor, at any level. it is a dangerous guide. It does not follow that the employee longest in service in a particular trade is best suited for promotion to a higher grade; the very opposite may be true". (Introduction to the Study of Public Administration, 4th Edn., pp. 380, 383). As a matter of long administrative practice promotion to selection grade posts in the Indian Police Service has been based on merit and seniority has been taken into consideration only when merit of the candidates is otherwise equal and we are unable to accept the argument of Mr. N. C. Chatterjee that this procedure violates, in any way, the guarantee under Arts. 14 and 16 of the Constitution. For the reasons expressed we ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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