ORDER

Per : Hon’ble Shri Lok Ranjan, Member (A)

The Applicant in the present Original Application was aggrieved by his not being placed on the Select List of the Year-2014, for appointment to IAS from the Rajasthan State Civil Service (SCS) ; whereas some of his juniors had been selected by the Selection Committee (SC) under the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in the meeting dated 13.10.2015 – and eventually appointed to IAS vide Notification dated 23.10.2015.

2. From the pleadings of the parties in this case before us, the relevant matrix of facts had emerged as follows briefly. The Applicant was a member of Rajasthan Administrative Services (RAS), 1987 batch. He was given the Selection Scale (SS) of RAS, in the year 2005-06 ; and in the Seniority List published by the Respondents, of SS of RAS officers as on 01.04.2007, his name was at Serial No.181 ; whereas that of Smt. Vinita Srivastava was at Sl.No.179, that of Leeladhar Yadav was at Sl.No.182, that of Dinesh Kumar Yadav was at Sl.No.183, that of Durga Joshi was at Sl.No.184. A Departmental Inquiry came to be initiated against the Applicant by serving upon him a chargesheet dated 06.01.2010 under Rule-16 of the Rajasthan Civil Services (CCA) Rules, 1958 ; in which the Applicant was eventually exonerated vide Order dated 11.08.2015. Thereafter, he had been promoted in Super Time Scale (STS) of RAS vide order dated 03.09.2015 ; and to the Higher Super Time Scale (HSTS) against the year 2013-14 – where his name was placed at Sl.No.15 of the RAS HSTS, below that of Smt. Vinita Srivastava and above Leeladhar Yaday.

3. In due course, the Respondents had convened on 13.10.2015, a meeting of SC for appointment of members of State Civil Services (SCS) of Rajasthan to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) by way of promotion, as per the provisions of IAS (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations 1955 (Regulations of 1955). The SC had selected the members of SCS of Rajasthan to be considered for appointment to IAS against the year-wise vacancies determined for the years from 2012 to 2014, under Regulation 5(1) of the Regulations of 1955. It was the case of the Applicant that in the Select List prepared by the SC for 2014, (for IAS vacancies arisen between 01.01.2014 to 31.12.2014), the name of his Smt. Vinita Srivastava – his immediate senior in Rajasthan SCS – was placed at Sl.No.4 ; while name of his juniors Dinesh Kumar Yadav and Durga Joshi had been placed at Sl.No.5 and Sl.No.6 respectively.

Hence, the Applicant had claimed that since he had already been exonerated in the Departmental Proceedings on 11.08.2015, before the date of the meeting of the SC on 13.10.2015, he also should have been included before his juniors as suitable for promotion to the IAS – in the Select List of 2014 ; and consequently in the Notification dated 23.10.2015 – while appointing members of SCS of Rajasthan to the IAS for the Year 2014.

4. Aggrieved by the same, the Applicant had submitted a representation. However, as the Select List was due to expire on 31.12.2015, therefore he had also approached this Tribunal vide the present O.A. Since the Applicant had felt that he was entitled for appointment in the IAS against the Select List of 2014, which could be given only through a review meeting of the SC – the Applicant had sought the substantive relief of the present O.A. to be allowed and for directions to be issued to the Respondents to appoint the Applicant in the IAS against the Select List of 2014 by conducting the Review meeting of the SC.

5. On the other hand, the Respondents No.(2 & 3), the State Government of Rajasthan, had mentioned vide their Reply that for convening the meeting of the SC for promotion of SCS officers to the IAS – necessary proposals had to be prepared, inter alia along with the Seniority Lists in the SCS feeder grade and ACR dossiers of the SCS officers falling under zone of consideration. The same had been furnished for officers belonging to RAS/SCS of Rajasthan, to the UPS