Entitlement to promotion against a specific vacancy year is contingent upon a junior's promotion preceding the claimant's promotion.

JUDGMENT

V. Kameswar Rao, J. (Oral)

1. The challenge in the writ petition is to an order dated December 21, 2018, passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, ('Tribunal', for short) in Original Application ('OA', for short), being O.A. No.2594/2017 filed by the petitioner whereby the Tribunal dismissed the same.

2. The challenge in the OA by the petitioner was to an order dated May 1, 2017, of the respondents whereby the request of the petitioner for being promoted to the post of Director (Aeronautical Engineering) ('AE', for short) w.e.f. 2012 was rejected.

3. The facts as noted from the record are that in the year 1993 the petitioner joined the office of Director General Civil Aviation as Project Officer. He was promoted to the post of Senior Scientific Officer in the year 2003. The said post was re-designated as Assistant Director (AE). On completion of five years of service on that post, an incumbent becomes eligible for being considered for promotion to the post of Deputy Director (AE). The petitioner became eligible for the post of Deputy Director (AE) in the year 2008. A charge sheet was issued to the petitioner on February 12, 2009. The charges were dropped vide order dated August 05, 2010.

4. The petitioner with a grievance that the process of direct recruitment has been initiated to the post of Deputy Director (AE) without taking any steps by promotion to that post, had filed, OA No.2506/2011. During the pendency of the OA, the petitioner was promoted to the post of Deputy Director (AE). The OA was ultimately dismissed on September 05, 2014. The petitioner filed W.P.(C) No.5802/2015 before this Court, feeling aggrieved by the dismissal of the OA.

5. It was his case that, he is entitled to be promoted to the post of Deputy Director (AE) w.e.f. the date on which the vacancy had arisen. The writ petition was disposed of on August 11, 2016, taking note of the fact that the petitioner has already been promoted, with a direction that a review Departmental Promotion Committee ('DPC', for short) shall be held to consider the case of the petitioner for promotion with effect from an earlier date when the vacancy had arisen, i.e., in the year 2009-2010. Pursuant thereto, the petitioner was considered for promotion to the post of Deputy Director (AE) and was promoted as such w.e.f. May 9, 2009.

6. The case of the petitioner before the Tribunal was that he became eligible to be promoted to the post of Director (AE) w.e.f. April 1, 2012, but still he was treated as being eligible to be promoted w.e.f. September 24, 2015, i.e., the date on which his juniors were promoted to that post. It was his representation for promotion to the post of Director (AE) w.e.f. April 1, 2012, which was dismissed vide order dated May 1, 2017.

7. It was urged before the Tribunal that once the wrong done to him on account of delay occurred in promoting him to the post of Deputy Director (AE) has been remedied; he is entitled to be promoted as Director (AE) against the vacancy of the year 2013- 2014. According to him, despite a clear vacancy existing on the post of Director (AE) in that year, he was not promoted on the ground no eligible candidate was available and DPC was not constituted.

8. It was his case that, it was only on convening of the review DPC for the post of Deputy Director (AE), in compliance of the Judgment of this Court, that he came to be promoted w.e.f. 2009, and thereby acquiring eligibility to the post of Director (AE), at least from the vacancy year 2013-2014. The respondents are required to consider him for promotion as Director (AE) in that panel year.

9. The case of the respondents before the Tribunal was that the petitioner cannot insist that he is entitled to be promoted against a vacancy, in a particular year, much less with retrospective effect. It was their case that the occasion to promote an officer with retrospective effect would arise only when his junior is promoted from an earlier date. As n