IMPORTANT POINT
The main legal point established in the judgment is that the promotion rules did not violate Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India as the different cadres were not treated as equals, having different qualifying criteria and a common professional exam before being promoted in the prescribed ratio.

JUDGMENT :

ANIRUDDHA P. MAYEE, J.

1. By way of these petitions, common challenge is made to the vires of Rule 2(A)(a)(ii) as well as Rule 2(A)(a)(iii) of the Narmada Water Resources, Water Supply and Kalpasar Department Recruitment Rules, 2016, which has been published through the notification dated 8.6.2016. There is a further challenge to the legality and validity of promotion to the post of Deputy Executive Engineer (Civil) Class-II in the Gujarat Engineering Services under the Roads & Building Department Recruitment Rules, 2017, being Rule 2(a)(i) and 2(a)(ii), published by the notification dated 14.7.2017, being discriminatory and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, by treating the ‘unequals’ as ‘equals’ for the promotion to the post of Deputy Executive Engineer.

2. The case of the petitioners is that the Assistant Engineers who are having Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) degree and who have been selected after following the due procedure by the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) and who have no pecuniary limit for carrying out any civil work, are being considered for promotion along with the Additional Assistant Engineers who are Diploma Engineers and have pecuniary jurisdiction to carry out civil works, amounting upto Rs.10 lacs, having 8 years of experience in the cadre and the Overseers having 13 years of experience in the cadre, who can carryout the civil works upto the pecuniary limit of only Rs.25,000/-.

3. That one Special Civil Application No.7593 of 2016 came to be filed in this Hon’ble Court seeking to quash the ratio of 7:4:1 as absolutely irrational and arbitrary, whereby different cadres were considered for promotion. It was contended in the said writ petition that the said ratio required reconsideration as the same had caused injustice to the Assistant Engineers (Civil) Class-II (Gazetted Officer) and due to which, many of the Assistant Engineers had attained superannuation serving in the same cadre. Whereas, the other cadres of the Overseers and Additional Assistant Engineers got undue advantage of higher promotion on the basis of the said ratio. That the said writ petition came to be disposed of. That, thereafter, the State Government published new Rules through the notification dated 8.6.2016, wherein the same ratio of 7:4:1 for filling up the posts of Deputy Executive Engineer (Civil) came to be maintained.

4. The new notifications have continued the same ratio for promotion to the next promotional posts and that no major change is envisaged in the promotion policy, except introduction of 5 years of experience for the Assistant Engineers for promotion to the posts of Deputy Executive Engineer. The grievance with respect to the three different cadres being treated as equals and at par has not been done away with and the anomaly still exists in the previous as well as the current Rules.

5. The learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that considering the requirement of minimum qualification prescribed for appointment to the post of Deputy Executive Engineer (Civil) through the direct selection, the Overseer (Civil) and the Additional Assistant Engineer (Civil) could not have been and ought not to have been treated as feeder cadre posts for promotion to the post of Deputy Executive Engineer (Civil). He further submitted that all these cadres could not be treated at par only by prescribing work experience and the unequals have been treated as equals, though the qualification criteria prescribed for these three cadres are different and distinct. Further, even the duties attached to the posts are having different pecuniary jurisdiction and, therefore also, they lacked in experience for promotional posts and cannot be treated at par with the Assistant Engineers (Civil) who are actual feeder cadre for the post of Deputy Executive Engineer (Civil).

6. It was submitted that considering the capacity and competence as well as theoretical and practical knowledge gained by the Additional