Notifying State Forest Service

With a view to bring about a perceptible change in the recruitment rules and to have parity with the ones existing under the Indian Forest Service as also to create promotional avenues, the State High Court has directed the State Government to make the notification about the State Forest Service Rules. The premise of the entire issue being on three counts, one -that the State Government is a model employer ; second- it was under constitutional obligation to fulfil the welfare measure related aspirations of the employees and the third- good governance and utilization of talent and human resources employed by the State. Therefore, once the Rules were notified, the State was required to prepare a list of suitable officers for induction into the Indian Forest Service (Appointment by promotion) Regulations 1966. The court in a well celebrated judgment, which is nothing less than a landmark one, over the notification of State Forest Service, has given due relief as sought by the petitioners.
It is pertinent to note that the court has decided about the timeframe too within which the entire exercise was to be completed, which is within eight weeks from the date of the court order served upon the respondents. The petitioners, the concerned employees of the State Forest Department, had pleaded that the State was legally obliged to create promotional opportunities as for instance in the post of Assistant Wildlife Warden , a single cadre post was carrying no promotional opportunities. It was pleaded that under Article 14 of the Constitution of India , the State had to fulfil the constitutional obligations. It , therefore, can well be inferred that the recruitment rules governing the service conditions were required to be attuned to the opportunities and avenues for further promotions and career advancement in the Department.
Promotions cannot be confined within a Department of the size of the State Forest Department to a selected cadre in respect of Gazetted cadre only which was revealed in the judgment that the mechanism adopted by the Government for promoting only the members of the Forest Gazetted service to Indian Forest Service appeared to be “wholly arbitrary, illogical and unjust.” It was further observed that the State Government had no justification in depriving other wings of the Forest Service , the aggrieved petitioners included, from “consideration zone” of the opportunities of promotion while allowing the other ones for constitution of State Forest Service as interpreted by Rule of the Indian Forest Service (Recruitment) Rules 1966.

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