The right to promotion should not be denied due to administrative errors or lapses in communication about examination eligibility.

ORDER

Per Kumar Rajesh Chandra, A.M. :-

Instant OA has been filed by the applicant seeking the following relief:-

“(i) The Office Order No. PA/P/Admin/Court Case/AKP dated 22.04.2019 (Annexure- A/17) may be treated illegal and arbitrary and same be quashed and set aside.

(ii) The applicant humbly prays that respondent may be directed to grant notional promotion to him to the post of Junior Clerk (Grade Pay of Rs. 1900 in Level-2) with effect from date of the juniors promoted in the Pune Division, Central Railway in the month of January, 2013 and further grant him the consequential benefits.

(iii) Any relief/s may be granted to the applicant for ends of the justice.

2. Applicant’s case, in brief, is as follows:-

(i) Initially the applicant was appointed against the post of Group ‘D’ on 08.08.2008 under Pune Division of Central Railway.

(ii) The applicant exercised his option for his transfer to newly created Rail Wheel Plant, Bela under East Central Railway, which was accepted and ordered accordingly, vide letter dated 15.09.2011 [Annexure-A/1]. Thereafter, the applicant was transferred from Pune Division, Central Railway to Rail Wheel Plant, Bela under East Central Railway and is continuing there maintaining his lien at his parent Railway, i.e. Central Railway, Pune which is apparent from letter dated 24.01.2012 (Annexure A/2).

(iii) According to the applicant, in November, 2012, the Central Railway, Pune conducted Limited Departmental Examination [in short LDCE) for promotion to the post of Junior Clerk from the cadre of the applicant. He was required to be afforded a chance to appear in the said LDCE along with his batch-mates as well as juniors. The Central Railway conducted the said LDOE, but he remained unaware. The applicant sought information under RTI and thereafter, on 10.09.2013, he submitted an application through proper channel before the authority at Central Railway and prayed to take supplementary examination and allow him to appear in the same 33 1/3% LDCE for the post of Junior Clerk from Group D. The application was forwarded by the Assistant Personnel Officer/RWP for CAD/RWP to the competent authority, the DRM[P], Central Railway, Pune, vide letter dated 19.09.2013. The applicant filed repeated representations dated 21.11.2013, 15.04.2014 and 30.09.2014 [Annexure-A/7, A/8 & A/9) which have been forwarded to the competent authority but nothing has been communicated to him.

(iv) When the applicant came to know that one similarly situated person, namely, Md. Mehtab Alam, who came at Rail Wheel Plant, Bela had not been intimated by his parent department, i.e. North Western Railway, Jodhpur about the departmental promotion examination then he made representation for taking the supplementary examination. In pursuance of his representation North Western Railway, Jodhpur, requested the Chief Administrative Officer, Rail Wheel Plant, Bela that as the juniors of the said Md. Alam were promoted in his parent Railway, his promotion might be ordered by taking examination for him and the information be intimated to the Sr. Personnel Officer Per/N/W.Rly., Jodhpur, vide letter dated 14.05.2014. It is contended by applicant that said Md. Alam was allowed to appear in the supplementary examination and he was promoted from the date of his junior vide order dated 12.07.2014 (Annexure A/11) and same was communicated to the Sr. DPO, NWR, Jodhpur.

(v) When the Pune Division did not allow the applicant for the supplementary exam then he filed OA No. 22/2015 before this Tribunal. During the pendency of the above OA, applicant was permitted to appear in LDCE under 16 2/3% quota for the post of Jr. Clerk, in which he was declared succes