ORDER :

Pramath Patnaik, J.

In the instant writ application, the petitioner has inter alia prayed for quashing memo dated 01.11.2012 whereby promotion granted to the petitioner on the post of Section Officer vide notification dated 30.07.2010 has been cancelled and further prayer has been made for direction upon the respondents to consider and promote the petitioner on the post of Section Officer with effective due date, from which persons junior to the petitioner have been promoted vide notification dated 01.11.2012.

2. The facts, which are necessary for adjudicating the matter, as delineated in writ application, in brief is that the petitioner was appointed as Assistant under Secretariat Services on 06.10.1990. By passage of time, in the year 2008 the State of Jharkhand published the provisional gradation list vide memo dated 23.10.2008, wherein the name of the petitioner figured at serial no. 178 and considering the seniority and unblemished service career, the Departmental Promotion Committee found the petitioner eligible for promotion on the post of Section Officer and accordingly he was promoted on the post of Section Officer vide memo dated 30.07.2010.

3. In the meanwhile, upon directions passed by Hon’ble Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No. 594/2007, the seniority position of the Cadre of the Assistants as contained in Gradation List dated 23.10.2008 was revised by another Gradation list as contained in memo dated 11.10.2010, wherein the name of the petitioner finds figure at serial no. 590 instead of 178. Pursuant thereto, the respondents-authorities issued notification dated 01.11.2012 whereby promotion granted to the petitioner on the post of Section Officer vide memo dated 3o.07.2010 was cancelled, which is impugned in this case.

4. Heard Mr. Rahul Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Rahul Kamlesh, A.C to learned S.C. II for the respondents.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted with vehemence that Gradation List as well as Promotion list was published long back and before changing the Gradation List and cancelling the order of promotion, the petitioner has never been issued show cause notice and afforded with the opportunity to put forth his case before the respondents-authorities and straightway by one stroke of pen his promotion has been cancelled, which is violative of principles of natural justice. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submitted that persons after serial no. 23 to serial no. 340, who are juniors to the petitioner, have been promoted vide notification dated 01.11.2012 whereas the petitioner who had been found eligible in the year 2010, has been placed below to persons appearing between serial no. 23 to 340, which shows the hostile discrimination and differential treatment; hence the impugned order is unsustainable in the eyes of law. It has further been submitted that by impugned order dated 01.11.2012 many persons juniors to him have been promoted whereas the petitioner has been discriminated, hence to demonstrate the hostile discrimination being meted to him, the petitioner has proposed to implead few of them as party-respondents in representative capacity by filing I.A. No. 11 of 2013, which is pending before this Court.

6. As against this, learned counsel for the respondents submitted that a provisional seniority list of Assistants was published vide memo dated 23.10.2008, for which objections with regard to mistake/claim of seniority, if any, was sought for from the members of service. On the basis of provisional merit list dated 23.10.2008 though provisional promotion list was published vide memo dated 30.07.2010 but on the objections raised by some of the members of the services that they should be ranked senior to the petitioner-Shri Ramjee Singh, the matter was examined and thereafter a fresh provisional seniority list dated 11.10.2010 was circulated, wherein the seniority of the petitioner was placed at serial no. 590, which affected the promotion of the petitioner