Promotion eligibility may extend to non-listed roles if administrative practices support their equivalency with listed feeder posts, which emphasizes flexibility in interpretation of service rules.

JUDGMENT :

(Ashutosh Kumar, C.J.)

We have heard Mr. M.K. Choudhury, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. A. Phukan, learned Advocate for the appellant; and Mr. K.N. Choudhury, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. A. Das, Advocate; Mr. T.J. Mahanta, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Ms. P. Sarma, learned Advocate for the respondents.

2. The challenge in the present appeal is to the judgment dated 21.11.2024, passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court in WP(C) 4538/2023, whereby the appellant’s contention that the respondent No. 7 was wrongly promoted to the post of Junior Information Officer and that the appellant should, instead, have been promoted, has been rejected and the decision of promoting the respondent No.7 to the post of Junior Information Officer has been upheld.

3. The appellant is a Librarian in the Directorate of Information and Public Relations and Printing and Press Department, Government of Assam, on which post she was appointed on 08.03.2019, and since then she is continuing on that post.

4. According to Assam Information and Public Relations Service Rules , 1986, (hereinafter referred as “1986 Rules”) for promotion to the post of Junior Information Officer, the feeder posts are Journalist, Sub-Editor-cum-Proof Reader and Librarian. The contention of the appellant is that the respondent No.7, who is a Translator, has been promoted to the post of Junior Information Officer, which de hors the rules and not sustainable in the eyes of law.

5. The contention of the appellant is that she possesses necessary qualification and experience for being promoted to the post of Junior Information Officer, having continuously served without any break, for more than five years. She has undergone the departmental training and also has passed the departmental examination. She ought not to have been excluded from being promoted to the post of Junior Information Officer. The respondent No. 7, a Translator, is not in the feeder cadre for promotion to the post of Junior Information Officer.

6. The State respondents, on the other hand, have contended that the gradation list of Translators, Journalists, Sub-Editor-cum-Proof Readers, Librarians and Proof Readers of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations, Assam, has been prepared on the basis of seniority and merit and such preparation of gradation list is in practice for decades. The posts referred to above have the same pay structure and, in fact, notwithstanding the nomenclature of such posts, the nature of work is also the same. The Translators are appointed along with Journalists, Sub-Editor-cum-Proof Readers etc. through same selection process which, in the present case, was pursuant to the Advertisement dated 30.10.2018 and the recruitment process having been completed in 2019. The pay scale of all the posts is also same. Thus, the post of Translator being equivalent to the posts of Librarian etc., which constitute the feeder cadre under the Rules for promotion to the post of Junior Information Officer, there is no illegality in the respondent No.7, a Translator, having been promoted to the post of Junior Information Officer.

7. On behalf of the respondent No.7, it has been urged that Rule 3(1) of the 1986 Rules, referred to above, specifies the class, cadres and status of various officers on different posts.

Class III posts comprise the cadre of Junior Information Officer, which also includes Assistant Editor of Publications, Assistant Publicity Officer, Press Research Officer, Manager of Publications, Script Writer, Publication Assistant, Sub-Divisional Information and Public Relations Officer.

This class may also include, accordin