The court ruled that a reserved category candidate, who had gained seniority through accelerated promotion, should not be debarred from being considered for promotion on merit. The court also emphasized that the selection process should be conducted as per the relevant rules and should not be interfered with unless there are clear infirmities in the decision-making process.

JUDGMENT AND ORDER :

1. Heard Mr. R. Mazumdar, the learned counsel for the writ petitioner, Mr. B. Goswami, the learned Additional Advocate General, Assam and Mr. D.K. Das, the learned counsel appears for the private respondent No.4.

2. The case of the writ petitioner in brief is that he joined his service in the Water Resources Department (the erstwhile Flood Control Department) under the Government of Assam in the year 1979 as an Assistant Engineer and since then, the petitioner has earned his promotion and career progression and currently holding the post of Additional Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department after having joined the post on 26.2.2016.

3. The respondent No.4 on the other hand initially joined the service on 28.3.1987/89 and thereafter, he was promoted to the post of Superintending Engineer in the year 2014 and presently he is also holding the post of Additional Chief Engineer after joining the said post on 12.7.2015.

4. The State respondent prepared the final gradation list of Additional Chief Engineer (Civil) under the Water Resources Department in the year 2017 which was published on 20.1.2017. In the said list, the name of the petitioner appears at Serial No.2 while the name of the respondent No.4 appears at Serial No.1. Since, the respondent No.4 belongs to the reserved class i.e., Schedule Tribe (Hills) (ST(H) for short), he had earned accelerated promotion.

5. The Water Resources Department maintains a roster register for the post of Chief Engineer which reflects the cadre strength of the Chief Engineer to be two (2) posts. The two posts are required to be filled up by way of promotion and the reservation of roster point are reflected at Serial No.5, 8, 14 for the candidates belonging to the Schedule Tribes (Plains) (ST(P) for short), Schedule Caste (SC for short) and ST(H) respectively. The roster register is in accordance with the Schedule-II of the Assam Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribes (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) (Amendment) Act, 2012 ( the SC & ST Reservation Act for short) which gives the model post register in cadres having number of 13 or less than 13 posts. The roster register also indicate the persons who have till now held the post of Chief Engineer and their status promoted/retired/serving as on date. The person holding the post against the roster point No.5 has been promoted to the post of Secretary to the Government of Assam, Water Resources Department and the incumbent at roster point No.9 is due to retire on 30.06.2017. Due to the promotion of the incumbent against roster Point No.5 on 28.2.2017, the Department concerned has initiated steps for filing up the post of Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department in terms of the Assam Engineering (Flood Control Department) Service Rules, 1981 ( the service Rules of 1981 for short).

6. According to the roster register maintained by the Department, the post which has become vacant relates to roster point No.10, which is an un-reserved post. According to the petitioner, he is fit and eligible to be considered against the said post and that he is the senior-most incumbent in the post of Additional Chief Engineer in the un-reserved category. However, to his knowledge and information, the official respondents have contemplated to fill up the post by accommodating respondent No.4 in the said post despite the fact that the vacancy is relatable to roster point No.10. Therefore, the petitioner apprehending that the respondent No.4 will be considered for promotion over him, he submitted a representation on 31.03.2017 (Anneuxre-5) to the respondent No.2. The official respondents having not considered his representation, the petitioner is before this Court.

7. Appearing for the petitioner, the learned counsel Mr. R. Mazumdar submits that the petitioner is the senior-most incumbent holding the post of Additional Chief Engineer amongst the un-reserved category in the department and he has good service records. Based on the roster registe

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