(Pronounced by Hon'ble Ms. Lata Baswaraj Patne, Member(J))

The applicant has filed this OA under Section 19 of the Administrative

Tribunals Act, 1985 seeking for the following reliefs:

“1. To call for the records of the 4^th Respondent pertaining to his

order made in No.B1/Misc/dlgs dated 15.10.2015 and set aside the

same; consequent to

2. direct the Respondents to extend the benefit of judgments of this

Hon’ble Tribunal made in O.A.No.679 of 2003 dated 19.03.2004 and the

Judgment of the Cuttack Bench of this Hon’ble Tribunal made in

O.A.No.1196 of 2004 and O.A.Nos.1213 - 1221 of 2004 dated 23.07.2008

and further direct to revise and re-fix the retirement service benefits of

the Applicant accordingly with all benefits and to pay the arrears to him.”

2.

The brief facts of the case as stated by the applicant are as follows:

The applicant joined the Respondents Department as a Clerk now re-

designated as Postal Assistant (PA)/Sorting Assistant (SA) at Vellore

Head Office. He was granted Time Bound One Promotion (TBOP) after

completion of 16 years of service on 30.11.1983 and BCR on completion of

another 10 years of service on 01.10.1991 i.e on completion of total service

of 26 years service. He retired from service while working as Biennial Cadre

Review Asst. Postmaster, (BCR APM) on attaining the age of superannuation

on 31.07.2002. He had put more than 12 years of service in BCR cadre.

Since, the introduction of TBOP and BCR, the Postal Department, kept in

abeyance of giving promotion to the eligible official to the cadre LSG because

the pay to the cadre of TBOP and LSG is one and the same. The pay for BCR

and HSG II is also one and the same. The promotion to the cadre of LSG was

kept in abeyance by the Department for a very long time. Hence, the BCR

officials having 3 years experience were eligible for promotion to the cadre of

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HSG-I as per the instructions issued by the Department from time to time.

The contention of the applicant is that similarly placed persons like the

applicants filed O.A. No.679 of 2003 before this Hon’ble Tribunal claiming

promotion to the cadre of HSG - I by treating the service rendered in the

capacity of BCR as equivalent to HSG -II cadre and it was allowed by an

order dated 19.03.2004. The W.P.No.27062 of 2004 filed by the Department

against that order was dismissed by the Hon’ble High Court, Madras on

24.09.2004. The SLP was also dismissed by an order dated 09.03.2011. The

grievance of the applicant is that though he had completed more than 3

years in BCR cadre (equivalent to HSG - II) and eligible to be promoted

notionally to the cadre of HSG - I and thereby entitled for revision and re-

fixation of the retirement service benefits including pension, the respondent

department has not considered his case for grant of similar relief. Further

the Cuttack Bench of this Hon’ble Tribunal in O.A.No.1196 of 2004 and

O.A.Nos.1213-1221 of 2004 has granted similar relief to similarly situated

persons like the applicants and allowed the OAs and thereafter, the

Department also complied with the said order vide memo No.ST/26-15/2013

dated 04.02.2015. The applicant's representations in this regard were not

turned down by the respondent department and hence the present OA.

3.

The respondents have filed a detailed reply. The thrust of the reply is

that the judgments, cited by the applicant for extension of similar relief as he

is similarly situated and his case is covered by the said orders passed by this

Hon'ble Tribunal as well as the co-ordinate bench at Cuttack which attained

finality as the respondents have implemented the said orders, are applicable

only to those applicants therein since the orders are in personam. The

respondents also averred that the benefit of the said judgments cannot be

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extended/made applicable to the applicant in the present OA unless order is

issued by the Postal Directorate to the effect that judgement is open to all

similarly place