The Tribunal emphasized that a party must exhaust all available remedies under relevant service rules before approaching the Tribunal for grievances.

ORDER

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

The present Original Application had been filed by the Applicant upon being aggrieved by the impugned Office Order dated 16.11.2016 by the Respondent No.4, i.e. the Deputy Director (HQ) of the Dattopant Thengadi National Board for Workers’ Education and Development ( DT-NBWED or the National Board hereafter) – whereby the post of Audio Visual Assistant cum Librarian (A.V.A.C.L.) was merged with/redesignated as that of Lower Division Clerk (L.D.C.) w.e.f. 10.01.2016 pursuant to Ministry of Labour & Employment ( also called the Ministry of Labour at different times – “the concerned Ministry”, hereafter) letter dated 10.11.2016 ; and the total number of posts of L.D.C. in the National Board Headquarters and Regional Offices were notified to be 75 in total in pursuance thereof.

2. Based on the pleadings of the case, the relevant matrix of facts had emerged as follows briefly. The Applicant was appointed against the post of “Projectionist” in the Central Board for Workers Education (CBWE) – later the DT-NBWED – under the concerned Ministry on 21.05.1998 as per the then extant Recruitment Rules- 1987 ; and had joined on probation for a period of two years, which came to be completed on 20.05.2000. The said post of “Projectionist” was then an isolated category of post, i.e. it did not either have a feeder post or a promotion post for which that itself was a feeder post. Meanwhile, it had been proposed to the 132^nd meeting of Governing Body (G.B.) of the National Board held on 26.04.2000 that since the nomenclature of “Projectionist” had become irrelevant when the companies had discontinued the production of 16 mm projectors, all 50 such posts at the Regional Directorates and the Indian Institute of Workers’ Education (I.I.W.E.), Mumbai be redesignated as “Audio Visual Assistant- Cum-Librarian”. The G.B., which is a tripartite body having the representative of the workers also, had approved the said proposal ; and upon the same, it had been conveyed by the concerned Ministry vide letter dated 21.07.2000 – inter alia, that the recommendation of the G.P. Srivastava Committee for cadres of multi-skilled/multi functionaries had been accepted by the Government ; that the skeleton supporting staff of a U.D.C., a L.D.C. a Projectionist and a Steno (at some Centres) sanctioned to a Regional Directorate should be equipped to handle the work of the other functionaries ; that it was felt that avenues/opportunities of promotion for the “Projectionists” would motivate them to excel – considering all of which, it was requested that the question of merger of the cadre of “Projectionist” with another cadre be examined and comments sent to the concerned Ministry. In follow- up, the C.B.W.E. had conveyed vide communication dated 31.07.2002 the re-designation of the posts of “Projectionists” working at various Regional Directorates, I.I.W.E. etc. as A.V.A.C.L. for the purpose of using them as multi-purpose functionaries, who may support the other staff in discharging of their duties. Meanwhile further, the concerned Ministry had also conveyed vide letter dated 15.03.2002 to the Director, C.B.W.E., the approval of the Government for amendment of C.B.W.E. (Staff and Conditions of Service) Regulations [the C.B.W.E. (S.C.S.) Regulations] of 1962, with regard to the Recruitment Rules for the promotion post of U.D.C. so far as inclusion of “Projectionist” as a feeder grade for 25% of the vacancies was concerned. Thereby, the erstwhile Projectionists/A.V.A.C.L. had been made a feeder cadre