A singular post in a cadre hierarchy cannot be reserved, and after bifurcation, the post should be considered unreserved, and the petitioner should be fully remunerated for the duties performed as Senior Architect.

The petitioner is an Architect and in Government Service. By this writ petition, he claims his right to be considered for the post of Senior Architect in the Department of Building Construction, Government of Bihar, which is a singular post. According to him, he is the senior most Architect and has a clean service record. Since 2006 he has been functioning and acting as Senior Architect, though in his own pay-scale, as the post is vacant since 2002. He is aggrieved by the action of the State in considering only the private-respondent no.6, Mukti Prasad for the said post neither on merit nor on seniority but on basis of reservation alone. Let it be noted that this Court had restrained the State from granting promotion to respondent no.6 during pendency of the writ petition. Accordingly, petitioner continues to act as Senior Architect and the matter of promotion of respondent no.6 is still pending with the Departmental Promotion Committee.

2. State and respondent no.6, who was noticed and has appeared, have filed counter affidavits and with consent of all the parties, this writ petition has been heard for its final disposal at this stage itself.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the post of Senior Architect in the Building Construction Department is a singular post which is to be filled up not by direct recruitment but by promotion. There is no notification of the State Government notifying the reservation of this singular post. It is also submitted that this being a singular post, it could not have been reserved. It is, accordingly, submitted on behalf of the petitioner that petitioner being the senior most, he cannot be kept out of consideration for the said post.

4. To the contrary, the stand of the State and that of respondent no.6 is that prior to bifurcation of the State in the Building Construction Department, Government of Bihar, as it then was, there were two posts of Senior Architect. In 1986, the second post of Senior Architect became vacant. On application of 100 point roster, the second post in the roster point was for Scheduled Caste. Accordingly, in 1986, the post had to be filled up by a Scheduled Caste candidate but none was available. Accordingly, it was decided that it should be filled up by general category candidate but the next vacancy upon his superannuation would be filled up only by reserved category candidate. Accordingly, in the year 1986, one Rai Ravi Kul Bhushan Verma of the general category was appointed as Senior Architect. On 15thof November, 2000 State was bifurcated and State of Jharkhand was created. One post of Senior Architect, out of the two, was given to the State of Jharkhand and one remained with the State of Bihar. The post remained vacant. According to the State, this post was the second post as would be evident from Government notification of the year 1986 wherein it was provided that the vacancy would, after superannuation of Sri Verma, be treated as reserved for Scheduled Caste. Accordingly, after bifurcation of the State, petitioner, being of general category, was asked to officiate in his own pay-scale as Senior Architect from 2006 and as it was to be filled up on basis of 2ndroster point by Scheduled Caste candidate, respondent no.6 was being considered to the exclusion of the petitioner. It is these conflicting stands which have to be resolved in this writ petition.

5. In my view, the stand of the State precisely is that this singular post, now available to the State of Bihar, is the second post to which point no.2 of 100 point roster would apply. This is stretching things a bit too far. Whatever may be the position prior to bifurcation of the State, the position underwent a radical change upon bifurcation. Point no.2 of 100 point roster would apply only if there were two posts available. As noted above, upon bifurcation of the State of Bihar, it was left only with a singular post. For a singular post, if the 100 point roster is applied, it would be found t