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IN THE HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR
Arup Kumar Goswami, N.K.Chandravanshi, JJ.
M.P. Ade S/o Shri Ridhen Ade - Appellant
Vs.
State of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary To The Government of Chhattisgarh, Agriculture Department Mantralaya, Mahanadi Bhawan, Atal Nagar Police Station Rakhi, Raipur Chhattisgarh., District : Raipur, Chhattisgarh - Respondent
WPS No. 4742 of 2019
Decided On : 07-04-2022
Constitution of India,1950 - Articles 226, 309, 30, 14 and 16 - Chhattisgarh Sub-ordinate Agriculture Class III (Non-Ministerial) Service Recruitment Rules, 2010 - Chhattisgarh Subordinate Agriculture (Non-Ministerial) Service Recruitment Rules, 1972 - Recruitment to the service - Promotion from the post of RAEO to post of Agriculture Development Officer - Petitioners are working as Rural Agriculture Extension Officers Department of Agriculture - They are presently governed by Chhattisgarh Sub-ordinate Agriculture Class III (Non-Ministerial) Service Recruitment repealed Chhattisgarh Subordinate Agriculture Service Recruitment Rules, 1972 used to govern the service of the petitioners - Petitioners pray for declaring amended entries relating to column 7 of serial No. 3 of Schedule II of the Rules which was issued in exercise of powers conferred by proviso to Article 309 of Constitution of India, as ultra vires to Articles 14 and 16 of Constitution of India as well as to Rules 3 and 6 of the Chhattisgarh Public Service (Promotion) Rules, 2003 – Recruitment Rule 6(1) provides that recruitment to service, after commencement of Rules, shall be made (a) by direct recruitment, by way of competitive examination or by selection on basis of merit and interview - Held, Number of posts included in the service and the scale of pay attached thereto shall be in accordance with provisions contained amongst others, that both ADO and RAEO are in Class-III - While scale of pay/grade pay of ADO scale of pay/grade promotion of RAEO to ADO is promotion from Class-III to higher pay scale of Class-III. Rule 4 of Rules of 2003 provides that such promotions shall be made on basis of seniority subject of fitness - Affidavit goes to show that separate seniority list/gradation list of RAEOs is not maintained. Direction was issued by letter issued by Under Secretary, Government of Chhattisgarh, Agriculture Development & Farmer Welfare and Bio-Technology Department to make separate gradation list amongst those two categories - Promotion is to be made on the basis of seniority subject to fitness and when it is established on basis of materials on record that only one seniority list of RAEOs is maintained, the amendment effected only in Schedule II by way of substitution providing that 45% of 90% of the posts reserved for RAEOs shall be filled up by Agriculture/ Agricultural Engineering/Horticulture/Agricultural Bio-Technology qualified graduate and the rest 45 percent by other graduates, without amending substantive provisions governing service conditions essence - Writ petition is allowed.
JUDGMENT :
Arup Kumar Goswami, J.
The petitioners are working as Rural Agriculture Extension Officers (for short, RAEO) under the Department of Agriculture. They are presently governed by the Chhattisgarh Sub-ordinate Agriculture Class III (Non-Ministerial) Service Recruitment Rules, 2010 (for short, the Rules of 2010). Rules of 2010 repealed the Chhattisgarh Subordinate Agriculture (Non-Ministerial) Service Recruitment Rules, 1972 (for short, the Rules of 1972), which used to govern the service of the petitioners earlier.
2. By this application filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners pray for declaring the amended entries relating to column 7 of serial No. 3 of Schedule II of the Rules of 2010, brought in by notification dated 04.12.2018, which was issued in exercise of powers conferred by proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India, as ultra vires to Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India as well as to Rules 3 and 6 of the Chhattisgarh Public Service (Promotion) Rules, 2003 (for short, the Rules of 2003).
3. As the dispute is relating to promotion from the post of RAEO to the post of Agriculture Development Officer (for short, ADO), prayer is also made to direct the respondents to proceed for consideration for promotion to the post of ADO from the post of RAEO as per seniority list at Annexure-P/6.
4. Rule 6 of the Rules of 2010 provides for method of recruitment. Rule 6(1) provides that recruitment to the service, after commencement of the Rules, shall be made (a) by direct recruitment, by way of competitive examination or by selection on the basis of merit and interview; (b) by promotion of members of the service as specified in column (2) of Schedule IV; and (c) by transfer/deputation of the persons who hold in a substantive/ officiating capacity such post in such services as may be specified in that behalf.
5. Schedule IV, amongst others, provides that Surveyors/RAEO/Press Operator/Artist/Photographer having 5 years of experience are eligible to be promoted as ADO.
6. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the parties that cadre strength of the RAEO and ADO is 3760 and 652, respectively.
7. It will be relevant at this juncture to extract unamended Schedule-II so far as it relates to the post of ADO, which is as under:
(See Rule 6)
Chhattisgarh Sub-ordinate Agricultural (Non-Ministerial) Service
| S. No. | Name of Post included in service | Total No. of duty posts | Percentage of number of duty posts to be filled in | Remarks | ||
|
|
|
|
| |||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
| Agriculture Statistics Services | ||||||
| 1 | xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx |
| 2 | xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx | Xxx |
| 3 | Agriculture Development Officer | 652 | - | 100% | - | 15 percent of Surveyor and 82.5 percent for Rural Agriculture Extension Officer and 2.5 percent for Press Operator/ Artist/ Photographer (these posts is dying cadre) if these post is not available against it may be filled up by a RAEO. |
| xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx | xxx |
8. A perusal of the above would go to show that 100% of the post of ADO is to be filled up by promotion, out of which 15 percent is to be promoted from the post of Surveyor, 82.5 percent from the post of Rural Agriculture Extension Officer and 2.5 percent from the post of Press Operator/Artist/Photographer, providing further that if post is not available against the said category, quota earmarked for Press Operator/Artist/Photographer may be filled up by RAEO.
9. In order to understand the controversy, it will be appropriate to take note of the amendment by way of substitution, which reads as follows:
“(i) 10 percent for Surveyor; and
(ii) 90 Percent for Rural Agriculture Extension Officer, out of which 45
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