Central Administrative Tribunal Principal Bench New Delhi O.A. No.3957/2024 This the 24^th day of December, 2024 Hon’ble Mrs. Harvinder Kaur Oberoi, Member (J)

Hon’ble Mr. Sanjeeva Kumar, Member (A)

1. Ms. Chetana Kandpal, Age 36 Years, working as Company Prosecutor, O/o The Registrar of Companies, Delhi & Haryana.

2. Shri Aditya Sahal, Age 34 Years. Working as Company Prosecutor, O/o The Registrar of Companies, Jaipur.

3. Shri Nitin Agnihotri, Age 32 years, working as Company Prosecutor, Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO HQ) Ministry of Corporate Affairs, CGO Complex Lodhi Road New Delhi-110003

4. Shri Mahendhar Aithe, Aged 38 years, Working as Company Prosecutor at SFIO Hyderabad Regional Office.

5. Shri Arib Ahmad Ansari, Aged 36 years, Working as Company Prosecutor at ROC Kanpur.

..Applicant (By Advocates: Mr. Suresh Chandra)

Versus

1. Union of India through The Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, 5th Floor, A Wing, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi 110001

2. DoPT The Secretary, Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions, Government of India North Block, New Delhi-110001

3. UPSC The Chairman, Dholpur House, New Delhi-110001

4. Sh. Rajiv Shankar Director, MCA Admin

5th Floor, A Wing, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi 110001

5. Sh. Shailendra M. Pathak Under Secretary, MCA Admin 5th Floor.

A Wing. Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi 11000 ... Respondents (By Advocate: Ms. Geetanjali Sharma)

O R D E R(Oral)

Hon’ble Mrs. Harvinder Kaur Oberoi, Member(J)

Learned counsel for the applicant submits that the applicants are regularly recruited through the UPSC as Company Prosecutors, and have been serving with the respondents since 2015.

2. He submits that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs i.e. Respondent No. 1 vide OM dated 08.01.2024, had invited comments of the stakeholders for the draft recruitment rules for promotion to the Junior Time Scale of the Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS) and for the fixing of the ratio between the Company Prosecutors who are the direct recruits and the Senior Technical Assistants (STA) who are departmental promotees. Despite the said notification having been issued on 08.01.2024 and the applicants and other stakeholders submitting their representations, the final recruitment rules (RRs) have not been notified till date. On one hand the respondents are purposefully delaying the notification of the RRs and on the other hand they are continuing with the regular DPCs as such, filling up the next higher post of the Junior Time Scale in the ICLS.

3. He has also drawn our attention to an order dated 12.04.2023 passed in OA No. 249/2023, wherein, as far back as 1.5 years earlier, the respondents were directed to decide the representations of the applicants in the same OA, concerning the same issue within four weeks and not to conduct the DPC till at least two weeks, thereafter. As such, the counsel submits that the employees/officers working as company prosecutors have been agitating their grievance before the various benches of the Tribunal since

2023.

4. On issuance of notices, the respondents have filed their short counter affidavit, in their reply in Paras 7,8, 9 and 10, it has been stated as under:-

“7. The Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS) is Group ’A’ service in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). The promotion process within ICLS is governed by the Indian Corporate Law Service Recruitment Rules, 2015 (RRS), which outline the procedures for promotion from feeder cadres to higher grades, including the Junior Time Scale (JTS). True copy of Indian Corporate Law Service Recruitment Rules, 2015 (RRs) is annexed herewith as Annexure-R/1.

8. In the said RRs, method of recruitment to JTS of ICLS is 60% by Direct Recruitment (through CSE) and 40% by Promotion from the feeder cadre of JTS of ICLS). There were 04 feeder for JTS of ICLS viz. Senior Technical Assistant (STA), Company Prosecutor (CP), Superintendent- cum-Accountant (SCA) and Investigating Officer (10), though the latter two are now effectively non- existent. There was no ratio b