The court held that the petitioner, a T.T.A., is not eligible for promotion under the 15% departmental competitive examination quota because the Rules explicitly exclude T.T.As from that category, dismissing the writ petition.
Writ petition dismissed; no order as to costs; pending petitions closed.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.C.BHANU AND
THE HON’BLE MRS JUSTICE ANIS
WRIT PETITION No.19688 OF 2006
ORDER:- (per Hon’ble Sri Justice K.C.Bhanu)
This writ petition is filed seeking to issue writ of Mandamus declaring that the petitioner is eligible and entitled for promotion to the post of Junior Telecom Officer (J.T.O.) under 15% Limited Departmental Competitive Examination Quota on the basis of the marks obtained by him in the examination held on 16th and 17th May, 1999 against the vacancies pertaining to the years 1996, 1997 and 1998 with effect from the dates on which others were promoted under the same quota for the same years with all consequential benefits such as seniority, arrears of pay and allowances etc., by setting aside the order, dated 21.08.2001, in O.A.No.591 of 2000 on the file of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad Bench, Hyderabad (for short, “the Tribunal”).
2. The petitioner/applicant was appointed as a Technician in the respondent department on 26.5.1984 and was given officiating promotion to the post of Telecom Technical Assistant (T.T.A.) and after completion of T.T.A. training, he was appointed as T.T.A. on regular basis with effect from 7.6.1997. A notification, dated 27.11.1998, was issued calling for applications from the eligible personnel for the post of J.T.O. for the vacancies pertaining to the years 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 in order to fill up the post of J.T.O. under 15% quota. The total number of vacancies for all the years is 215. The vacancies for the open competition and the vacancies reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates are 51. As the employees should apply in separate applications for the posts pertaining to each year, the applicant applied in four separate applications and he was issued hall
ticket. He appeared in the said competitive examination. The results were published on 25.11.1999, but he was not declared passed and 97 candidates were declared to have passed out of which, 90 belonged to open competition, 6 belonged to Scheduled Caste and 1 belonged to Scheduled Tribe categories. Only 90 vacancies were filled up in total out of total vacancies of 164 and 74 vacancies are yet to be filled up. He made a representation, dated 19.01.2000, to respondent No.2, but of no use. He issued a reminder, dated 16.03.2000, but no reply was received from the authorities. He secured above 40 marks in all the four papers and secured a total marks of 218, but he was not promoted. The employees, who secured the same marks like the petitioner were promoted. Hence, he filed O.A.No.591 of 2000 before the Tribunal.
3. The Tribunal, upon considering the material on record, dismissed the Original Application.
4. Heard both sides.
5. The factual matrix is not in dispute. The petitioner was appointed as T.T.A. with effect from 07.6.1997 in terms of the Note under Column No.6 of the Schedule to the Junior Telecom Officers Recruitment Rules, 1996 (for short, “the Rules”). His grievance is that since he passed the departmental competitive examination, his case has to be considered in 15% quota, but his case has not been considered in 15% quota. The aforementioned Rules govern the service conditions of the petitioner. Column No.12 of the Schedule to the Rules reads as follows:
(ii) 35% by promotion/transfer of Transmission Assistants/Wireless Operators/Auto Exchange Assistants/Phone Inspectors/Telecom Technical Assistants.
15% Promotion through competitive examination, the following Group
‘C’ employees in the Department whose scale of pay is less than that of Junior Telecom Officers shall be eligible, if such employees are:
A bare perusal of the above Rule shows that Group ‘C’ employees under Transmission Assistants, Telephone Inspectors, Auto Exchange Assistants, Wireless Operators and T.T.As do not come under 15% quota. It is clear from the Rules that T.T.As do not come under Rule 12(1)(i)(a) of the Rules. Therefore, the Tribunal rightly dismissed the Original Application and that order needs no interference by this Court. The writ petition is devoid of merit and is liable to be dismissed.
6. Accordingly, the Writ Petition is dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. Miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in this Writ Petition shall stand closed.
______________________ JUSTICE K.C.BHANU
_______________ JUSTICE ANIS
Date: 19.02.2014 AMD
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.C.BHANU AND
THE HON’BLE MRS JUSTICE ANIS
WRIT PETITION No.19688 OF 2006
DATE:19.02.2014
AMD
1 issue framed by the court
Whether a Telecommunication Technical Assistant (T.T.A.) is eligible for promotion under the 15% Departmental Competitive Examination Quota applicable to Junior Telecom Officers according to Recruitme
Petitioner
Respondent
K.C.BHANU
ANIS
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
