Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 19: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Hasnain Masoodi and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal has permitted the State to include senior most 14 KAS officers in the Final Seniority List notified vide Government Order No. 743-GAD of 2011 dated 24.06.2011 in the panel for induction into IAS. However, the DB made it clear that in the event, any of the officers is appointed to the IAS, the said appointment/induction shall remain in abeyance till outcome of the Letters Patent Appeals (LPAs).
The significant direction has been passed in an application filed by the State in LPA regarding officers appointed to the Time Scale of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service with effect from 01.01.2004 to 01.12.2008, who are locked in inter-se dispute regarding their seniority in the service, for the last four years.
The dispute was raised in a bunch of writ petitions filed on different dates in the year 2011. All the writ petitions were disposed of by the Single Judge vide judgment dated 8.11.2013. LPA filed against the writ court judgment by State and some of the petitioners/ respondents before the writ court, are awaiting disposal for a little more than one year.
“Delay in disposal of the appeals has kept the pot boiling with negative spill over on efficiency of the administrative machinery. One of the adverse consequences of the controversy is failure of the State Government to recommend the members of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service for their induction into Indian Administrative Service against 8 vacancies that have become available between 1.1.2013 to 31.12.2013”, the DB said.
Under Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel & Training vide communication dated 19.5.2015 addressed to the Chief Secretary of the State has requested for necessary action in terms of the provisions contained in Rule 4(2)(b) of the IAS (Recruitment) Rules, 1954 read with Regulation 5(1) of the IAS (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations, 1955 so that vacancies in promotion quota in the (IAS) are filled.
“The State Government in terms of these Rules and Regulations is required to submit a panel in the ratio of 1:3 to the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Once the panel is so submitted, the officers included in the panel are to be assessed on the basis of their Annual Performance Report (APRs) of preceding years as prescribed under Rules as also the criteria laid down therein”, the DB said, adding “the State Government in the present case has to submit a panel of 24 officers belonging to Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service to the DoP&T. The Selection Committee is to accord consideration to empanelled officers and select eight amongst them for the vacancies in question”.
“The seniority of 10 senior most officers of the cadre admittedly is beyond dispute. They are not party to the present litigation. However, they are made to suffer and the benefit otherwise due to them, denied to them only on the ground that 14 officers, junior to them, are entangled in a dispute about their seniority with their colleagues”, the DB further said, adding “non-availability of sufficient number of officers dissuades the State Government from submitting the panel of 24 officers to the Department (DoP&T)”.
Division Bench further observed that the appellants in LPA(SW) No. 20/2014, through medium of application on hand, are seeking permission to operate the seniority list of Time Scale officers of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service notified vide Govt. Order No. 743-GAD of 2011 dated 24.6.2011 to the extent of 14 senior most officers for their inclusion in the panel of 24 officers, to be submitted to Department of Personnel and Training so that 8 slots available for the selection year 2013 are filed up from amongst the officers included in the panel.
“This, according to the applicants, would enable them to obviate the difficulty confronted because of pendency of the Letters Patent Appeals and application is resisted by the respondents in LPA(SW) No. 20/2014 and the parties to other Letters Patent Appeals, on the ground that the course suggested would not be permissible inasmuch as the seniority of 14 officers proposed to be empanelled is in dispute”, the DB further said, adding “it is insisted that the right course would be to take up all Letters Patent Appeals for final consideration at the earliest so that the controversy is resolved once for all”.
After considering the submissions of both the sides, DB observed, “there can be no disagreement with Advocate Gagan Basotra, who is appearing for the applicants that 10 senior most officers, who notwithstanding the pendency of the matter have been, after leave granted by Supreme Court, placed against the available vacancies in the special scale of KAS on stop gap arrangement in their own pay and grade, cannot be made to suffer and deprived of whatever is otherwise due to them only because the dispute regarding seniority of their junior colleagues is not settled with due dispatch”.
“There is merit in case and the arguments. It sounds convincing that denial of right of consideration to the officers not party to dispute, for induction in Indian Administrative Service is not only adversely affecting their service career, but overall efficiency of the administrative machinery. We, at the same time cannot also lose sight of the fact that though seniority position of 14 officers has found approval of the writ court, yet challenge to their standing in final seniority list is thrown by their colleagues in the cadre”, the DB said, adding “peculiar nature of controversy calls for balancing of interests of the officers not involved in the dispute and interest of all those who oppose empanelment of 14 senior officers, party to the dispute but required to be empanelled so that 10 eligible officers do not lose a right, that has come their way, on mere technical grounds”.
With these observations, Division Bench disposed of application with the direction that the State Government would be free to include first 14 officers in the Final Seniority list notified vide Government Order No. 743-GAD of 2011 dated 24.6.2011 in the Panel, so that the requirement of Regulation 5 of the Indian Administrative Service (Appointment by promotion) Regulations, 1955 is satisfied and consideration is accorded by the Selection Committee to the appointment of 8 officers from amongst the empanelled candidates against 8 positions available in the year 2013.
“The recommendation of the Selection Committee to the extent it pertains to the 10 eligible officers not party to the Letters Patent Appeals whose seniority is free from any controversy shall be acted upon notwithstanding pendency of Letter Patent Appeals”, the DB said and directed that the order shall not stand in way of the respondents to press into service proviso (2) of Regulation 5 of the Indian Administrative Service (Appointment by promotion) Regulations, 1955 and submit the panel of 10 eligible officers with necessary material to the Department of Personnel and Training.
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