TMI Blog1987 (8) TMI 441X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rds of the vacancies had to be filled up by promotion by selection from Class II Officers and the remaining one third by direct recruitment by competitive examination to be held by the Public Service Commission. When direct recruitment had not been made timely as envisaged by the scheme in the Rules officiating promotions were given in respect of posts covered by the direct recruit quota. Such temporary promotions remained effective for a number of years sometimes varying between 5 and 8 and later when the vacancies within the direct recruitment quota were filled up, the appointments made in latter years were deemed to carry weightage for seniority on the footing of deemed filling up when vacancies had arisen. Thus the dispute as to seniority inter se between those who had manned the promotional posts beyond the 2 3rds limit and the direct recruits subsequently appointed has come for judicial determination. A three-Judge Bench of this Court in V.P. Badami etc. v. State of Mysore Ors., [1976] 1 SCR 315 dealt with a situation of this type with reference to the same set of Rules. A similar dispute came before the Karnataka High Court in a bunch of writ petitions filed both by promot ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... vacancies carried forward from the earlier period. The recruits of the 1964 batch were assigned ranks taking into account the direct recruitment vacancies carried forward for the previous period. On a representation by the 1974 batch of direct recruits for refixation of inter se seniority in the Gradation List taking into account only the permanent posts in the cadre and by taking into account the carried forward vacancies, the State Government made an order on 22.5. 1980, to the effect that the 1974 batch of direct recruits should be shown immediately below serial number 64 and above serial number 65 in the continuation Gradation List published on 2.2. 1977. Certain promotees being aggrieved by this Governmental direction approached the High Court under Article 226 for relief claiming protection of their seniority. The High Court classified their contentions into the following five: (i) The only basis for determination of inter se seniority of officers in a cadre whether by promotion or direct recruitment-should be the date of entry into the cadre and the quota rule is not available to be used for pushing up or down officers of the cadre; (ii) Even if there be any &# ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d. But such carry forward cannot exceed three years after 1.1.1972. (iii) The above ruling of the Supreme Court (Badami's case) is binding on all courts under Article 141 of the Constitution. It is not open to us to speculate what would have been the conclusion of the Supreme Court if it had known the correct factual position that the cadre of Junior Scale officers consisted both of permanent and temporary posts. That the promote petitioners in the present writ petitions were not parties to Badami's case, in no way detracts from the binding character of the law declared by the Supreme Court. (iv) Hence, we reject the contention that 1959 Rules abrogated the quota rule in regard to recruitment to the cadre of Junior Scale officers ...... We, therefore, reject the contentions of learned counsel for promotee petitioners that after the 1966 Rules came into force, the quota rule ceased to apply to the recruitment to the cadre of Junior Scale officers and that thereafter the date of entry into the cadre, whether by direct recruitment or by promotion, became the only basis for determining the seniority in that cadre. (v) The High Court examined the individual cases ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t from the two sources. (H.C. Sharma v. Municipal Corporation of Delhi Ors., [1983] 3 SCR 372. FIRST ASPECT In S.G. Jaisinghani v. Union of India Ors., [1987] 2 SCR 703 a Constitution Bench of this Court observed: The Solicitor-General on behalf of respondents 1, 2 and 3 submitted that the quota rule was merely an administrative direction to determine recruitment from two different sources in the proportion stated in the rule and a breach of that quota rule was not a justiciable issue. The Solicitor-General said that there was, however, substantial compliance with the quota rule ............ We are unable to accept the argument of the Solicitor-General that the quota rule was not legally binding on the Government. It is not disputed that Rule 4 of the Income Tax Officers (Class I, Grade II) Service Recruitment Rules is a statutory rule and there is a statutory duty cast on the Government under this rule to determine the method or methods to be employed for the purpose of filling the vacancies and the number of candidates to be recruited by each method. In the letter of the Government of India dated October 1951 there is no specific reference to rule 4, but the quota fixe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rect recruits, when direct recruitment takes place, the direct recruits will occupy the vacancies within their quota. Promotees who were occupying the vacancies within the quota of direct recruits will either be reverted or they will be ab sorbed in the vacancies within their quota in the facts and circumstances of a case. The important principle is that as long as the quota rule remains neither promotees can be allotted to any of the substantive vacancies of the quota of direct recruits nor recruits can be allotted to promotional vacancies. The result is that direct recruitment vacancies between 11th September, 1959 and 26th October, 1964 cannot be occupied by any promotees. The fact that direct recruits were confirmed on 28th October, 1964 will not rob the direct recruits of their quota which remained unfilled from 2nd December, 1957 ............ In S.C. Jaisinghani v. Union of India (supra) it was said that when the quota was fixed for the two sources of recruitments, the quota could not be altered according to exigencies of the situation. It was held there that the promotees who had been promoted in excess of the prescribed quota should be held to have been illegally promoted. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt Engineers and even if there were not eligible Assistant Executive Engineers who could be promoted to fill in two vacancies belonging to their quota, one vacancy is to be filled up by promotion of an Assistant Engineer if he was eligible. Similarly, if two vacancies belonging to the quota of Assistant Executive Engineers are to be filled by Assistant Engineers for want of availability of eligible Assistant Executive Engineers, the appointment of Assistant Executive Engineers have to be pushed down to later years when their appointment could be regularised as a result of absorption in their lawful quota for those years. Badami's case referred to several authorities of the Court and clearly drew out the judicial consensus on the point in issue by concluding that the quota rule had to be strictly enforced and it was not open to the authorities to meddle with it on the ground of administrative exigencies. The scheme in force relating to the services for fixing inter se seniority takes into account the filling-up of the vacancies in the service from the two sources on the basis of the quota and, therefore, fixation of inter se seniority in the Gradation List has to be worked o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssion. On the 11th of August, 1977, the Karnataka Administrative Service (Recruitment) (Amendment) Rules, 1977 came into force. Rule 2 thereof provided: Amendment to Schedule:-In the Schedule to the Karnataka Administrative Service (Recruitment) Rules, 1957 for the entries at the Item (b) the following entries shall be subsituted, namely: 1 2 3 (b)All Class I (i)50%of vacancies to be For promotion; ClassII (Junior Scale) filled by promotion Officers must have Posts. from Class II Officers; worked for at least a and period of four years (ii) 50% by Direct including the period of Recruitment in accor officiation or probation dance with the Karnataka Recruitment of Gazetted Probationers (Appointment etc.) Rules, 1966. Unless the 1957 Rules remained in force till 1977, there would have been really no necessity to refer to them for the purpose of amendment; Badami's case did proceed on the footing that the quota system in the Recruitment Rules continued till 1971-72. It is not Mr. Kacker's case that anything happened after 1972 which brought about dissolution of the quota. We reject the contention of Mr. Kacker that the quota system had been abandoned and confir ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , posts created to perform the ordinary work for which permanent posts already exist in the cadre, and isolated posts created for the performance of special task unconnected with the ordinary work which a service is called upon to perform. The conclusion indicated in the decision of the learned Chief Justice of this Court in Badami's case had been supported by reasons. As it would appear at page 8 19 of the Reports, this aspect was raised as the first of the six contentions formulated for consideration of the Court. Keeping the facts of the case in the background, three reasons were indicated in the judgment for the conclusion that quota covered permanent posts. Reference was made to certain decisions of this Court as also. to Rule 9 of the Probation Rules of 1959. It was held that Rule 9 establishes the exclusion of temporary posts from the cadre. Royappa's case (supra) was relied upon for the same conclusion by saying that posts temporarily added to the cadre by exercise of power under a permissive rule would not become cadre posts and temporary posts created due to exigencies of the service should be treated as posts outside the cadre. The High Court in the judgment ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s, 1950 came for consideration of the Court. The opinion expressed by this Court in the extracted paragraph was with reference to the rules before the Court. The provisions as indicated in the extracted paragraph were somewhat peculiar. After the quota was provided, there was a prohibition against filling up of the vacancies in the respective quotas from other categories even when suitable candidates were not available from within the reserved sphere. This meant that the posts were allowed to go vacant even though in public interest the same should have been filled up on account of the bar in the rule. It is in that background that this Court indicated that a reasonable period for the carry-forward scheme would be three years and at the end of the paragraph indicated that that would be a reasonable interpretation of that rule. Obviously nothing of general application was intended to be said and this Court did not certainly intend to lay down a time limit of general application. The Mysore State Civil Service (General Recruitment) Rules, 1957 which admittedly applied to the services in question by Rule 17 provided: Notwithstanding anything contained in these rules or in the rule ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the High Court was right in overlooking the binding judgment of this Court in Badami's case and preferring to apply the observations of Iyer, J in the latter decision made with reference to a different set of rules containing a different scheme of implementing quota. The rule on this aspect of Badami's case was quoted with approval by a two-Judge Bench of this Court in P.S. Mahal Ors. v. Union of India, [1984] 3 SCR 847. A lot of argument was advanced at the Bar particularly on the side of the promotees that serious prejudice was being caused to them by enforcing the quota rule. Reliance was placed on a number of authorities of this Court beginning with the case of A. Janardhana v. Union of India Ors., [1983] 2 SCR 165; G.S. Lamba Ors. v. Union of India Ors., [1985] 3 SCR 431; G.P. Doval Ors. v. Chief Secre tary, Government of U.P. Ors, [1985] 1 SCR70; O.P. Singla Anr. etc. v. Union of India Ors., [1985] 1 SCR 351 and D.S. Nakara Ors. v. Union of India, [1983] 2 SCR 165. In Lamba's case (supra) the Court found that the promo tion was not styled as temporary or ad hoc or stop-gap; on the other hand, the Court at page 459 of the judgment in the Reports ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... seniority only. The advantage received by the promotee before his chance opened should be balanced against his forfeiture of claim to seniority. If the matter is looked at from that angle there would be no scope for heartburning or at any rate dissatisfaction is expected to be reduced so far as the promotees are concerned. LAST ASPECT In Karam Pal v. Union of India, [1985] 3 SCR 271 a three-Judge Bench of this Court to which one of us was a party indicated as follows: In a vast country such as ours, strong and independent bureaucratic set up is indispensable. At the same time it is equally necessary that the service from top to bottom must be alive to the fact that it is its obligation to maintain proper attitudes, discipline and duty-oriented working. While it is the right of every person in the service set up to expect just and fair treatment in regard to his employment frequent litigation between him and the State involving countless other co employees in the service in the battle is a deviation from the right direction. It is true that very often instances come to light where the grievance is genuine and the treatment meted is unwarranted and uncalled for. Govern ment in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ut in the different judgments have fallen on deaf ears and created no stir. Thereby the most powerful wing in the administrative set up is gradually moving away from its designated path. We have come across cases where officers have been in court litigating over service disputes for about twenty-five to thirty years of their career which would mean almost three-fourths of their service period. What would be the contribution of such officers to the public service can well be imagined. Very often a public officer is forced into litigation as he gets no justice in the hands of the superior. There are also several instances where an officer drags the employer into litigation without a cause of action. These are matters which must be taken into account without further loss of time and with fortitude so that the most effective wing of the administration does not further lose its serviceability. A public servant whatever his status be is in the position of a trustee. Social power vests in him for the purpose of rendering service to the community. Every public servant has to be cognizant to that obligation. Once the level of that consciousness grows up there is bound to be a correspondi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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