JUDGMENT

R.V.RAVEENDRAN, J.

1. The appellant, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., is the successor of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, and Government of India (for short `government' or `telecom department'). The question involved in these matters is whether rules of reservation will apply to upgradation of posts.

2. There were four grades of employees of telecom departments known as Telegraphists or Telecom Operating Assistants in the Telecom Department. Promotions from one grade to a higher grade were on the basis of seniority/departmental examination. The telecom department introduced an `One Time-Bound Promotion' scheme (`OTBP scheme' for short) in the year 1983-84 under which regular employees who had completed 16 years of service in a grade, were placed in the next higher grade. After some years, the employees unions demanded a second time-bound promotion on completion of 26 years of service in the basic grade, as Group C and Group D cadres were only entitled to one-time bound promotion. The government decided that a second time bound promotion was not feasible. However, to provide relief from stagnation in the grade, the government decided to have a Biennial Cadre Review (`BCR' for short) under which a specified percentage of posts could be upgraded on the basis of functional justification

3. The BCR scheme was accordingly introduced vide Circular dated 16.10.1990. It was made applicable to those cadres in Group C and Group D, for which one-time bound promotion scheme on completion of 16 years of service in the basic grade was in force. Under the said scheme, employees who were in regular service as on 1.1.1990 and had completed 26 years of satisfactory service in the basic cadres, were to be screened by a duly constituted Committee to assess their performance and determine their suitability for advancement and if they were found suitable, to be upgraded in the higher scale. The upgradation was restricted to 10% of the posts in Grade III.

4. We extract below the relevant terms of the BCR from the Circular dated 16.10.1990: ".......

(iii) Biennial Cadre Reviews will be conducted in respect of the eligible cadre at the level of circles who control these cadres.

(iv) At the time of review the number of officials who have completed/would be completing 26 years of service in the basic cadres including time spend in higher scale (OTBP) will be ascertained. The persons will be screened by the duly constituted Review committee to assess the performance and suitability for advancement.

(v) In the Biennial cadre review, suitable number of posts will be created by upgradation based on functional justification.

(vi) Creation of posts by upgradation will be in the scales indicated below:

Basic scale Scale after OTBP after Scale after BCR on completion

cadre of the 16 years of basic grade of 26 years or more

750-940 800-1150 950-1400

825-1200 950-1400 1200-1800

975-1540 1320-2040 1400-2600

975-1600 1400-2300 1600-2660

(10% of the posts in the pay

scale of 1600-2660 will be in

the pay scale of Rs.2000-3200

1320-2040 1600-2600 1640-2900

(10% of the posts in the pay

scale of 1640-2900 will be in

the pay scale of Rs.2000-

3200)

(vi) xxx xxx xxx

(viii) Necessary posts will be created by upgradation under the powers of CGMs in consultation with their accredite