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1993 Supreme(Ker) 15

Judges : VISWANATHA IYER
Narayanan - Appellant
Versus
State of Kerala - Respondent
Case No : O.P.No. 4098 of 1992
Decided On : 01/13/1993
Advocates Appeared :
C.S. Rajan For Petitioner Govt. Pleader (D. Somasundaram) For Respondents

The main legal point established is that R.37 of the KSSR, allowing the appointment of an All India Service Officer to any State service, should prevail over R.28A, and appointment outside the special rules should only occur in exceptional circumstances.

Headnote:

Amendment - Public Relations - Kerala State and Subordinate Service Rules (KSSR) - R.28A, R.37

Fact of the Case:

The petitioner, an Additional Director of Public Relations, challenged the government's decision not to promote him as Director of Cultural Affairs and the appointment of an I.A.S. Officer as Director of Public Relations. The government cited economy as the reason for not filling the post of Director of Cultural Affairs.

Finding of the Court:

The court declined the petitioner's prayer for appointment as Director of Cultural Affairs, but quashed the appointment of the I.A.S. Officer as Director of Public Relations, directing the government to consider the petitioner's appointment within two months.

Issues: The issues revolved around the government's decision not to promote the petitioner and the appointment of an I.A.S. Officer as Director of Public Relations.

Ratio Decidendi: The court held that R.37 of the KSSR, allowing the appointment of an All India Service Officer to any State service, should prevail over R.28A, which enables direct recruitment in the absence of suitable candidates for promotion or transfer. The court also emphasized that appointment outside the special rules should only occur in exceptional circumstances.

Final Decision: The original petition was allowed in part, rejecting the petitioner's prayer for appointment as Director of Cultural Affairs and quashing the appointment of the I.A.S. Officer as Director of Public Relations. The government was directed to consider the petitioner's appointment within two months.

Judgment :-

Petitioner is an Additional Director of Public Relations in the service of the respondent State. The original petition was filed on 25-3-1992 challenging the two proceedings Exts.P12 and P13 of the Government by which the petitioner was informed that his claim for being posted as Director of Cultural Affairs could not be granted and that the earlier decisions rejecting such a claim did not require reconsideration. The original petition was subsequently sought to be amended by filing CMP.No.15954 of 1992 to quash the appointment of one E.K. Bharath Bhooshan an officer borne in the LAS. cadre as Director of Public Relations by the proceedings Ext.P16 dated 26-6-1992. This petition was allowed on 20th July, 1992.

2. Before proceeding to state the facts of the case or dealing with the contentions raised by the parties, I must mention a feature that has been noted in many of the original petitions that have come up before me for hearing. Leave is often granted by this court for amending the original petitions incorporating new averments and new prayers besides producing new documents. Very often the amendments are not

carried out in the original petition; nor copies of the amended original petition produced with the result the court has to wade through various petitions to get a true picture of the amended original petition. Such a situation exists in this original petition also, the petitioner not having chosen to carry out the amendment allowed by CMP.No.15954 of 1992 in the original petition. Nor has he chosen to produce copies of the amended original petition. Normally this should have entailed refusal to look into the amendment. But I am refraining from doing so to avoid a failure of justice. It is necessary that all amendments to an original petition either in the averments or the prayers in the original petition or by way of production of new documents should be carried out in the original petition besides producing copies of the amended original petition for the use of the court and for service on the contesting respondents. However, as stated earlier I am treating he petition as one amended by CMP.No.15954 of 1992 and dealing with it as such despite the default on the part of the petitioner in carrying out the amendment. I must also mention that in between the original petition and C.M.P.No.15954 of 1992 a document had been introduced as Ext.P15 along with CMP.No.14019 of 1992, a petition for direction. Having regard to the numbering of this annexure, it is clear that the petitioner intended that also to be treated as part of the original petition. But it has made its appearance in a petition for direction without being followed by any petition for amendment of the original petition. Production of such documents along with applications for interim relief to be treated as exhibits in the main petition also causes difficulties to the court when such production is not followed up by appropriate amendment. One of the problems that may arise is that the exhibit in question will remain unexplained and unanswered in any counter affidavit that may be filed by the respondents as it does not form part of the original petition itself, though that contingency does not arise so far as this case and Ext.P15 produced along with CMP.No. 14019 are concerned. With these prefatory remarks I shall proceed to state the facts and deal with the matter on merits.

3. The petitioner joined the service of the State as an Information Officer under the Special Recruitment Programme in the year 1973, he being a member of the Scheduled Caste. He was the seniormost Deputy Director in the Public Relations Department and was promoted as an Additional Director of Public Relations by the proceedings Ext.P1 dated 26-6-1990. There was also a post of Director of Cultural Affairs in the Department which was treated as next in rank to the post of Director of Public Relations in the department as laid down in the government order Ext.P7 dated 8-7-1986. P
































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