The discretion of appointment authorities to modify or withhold vacancy notifications is upheld unless proven arbitrary.

ORDER

By Hon’ble Mr. Mohan Pyare, Member (A)

Present Original Application has been filed under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act , 1985, seeking the following relief:

“i. To issue an order or direction in the suitable nature quashing the impugned order dated 07.06.2021 and 09.12.2022 issued from the office of respondent no.2 (Annexure No.A-1 to the original application)

ii. To issue an order or direction in the suitable nature directing the respondent no.2/competent authority to release the panel of selected candidate of Group-1 vacancies to the post of Assistant Loco-Pilot grade pay of Rs.1900/- level-2 within stipulated period which may specified by this Hon’ble Tribunal.

iii. To issue any order or direction, which this Hon’ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

iv. To award the cost of the application to the applicant.”

2. Brief facts of this case are that all the applicants are permanent group ‘D’ employees of the respondents department and all of them are still working as Group ‘D’ employees with grade pay of Rs.1800/- in different divisions of North Eastern Railway Gorakhpur. An employment notice No.NER/RRC/GDCE/2018 dated 21.06.2018 was issued from the office of respondent no.2, whereby total 350 vacancies were notified group wise namely Group-1 to Group-8 and number of vacancies were also specified against each and every group. All the applicants, being eligible, applied against the aforesaid notification for the post of Assistant Loco Pilot in grade pay of Rs.1900/- pay Level-2 for which a total of 71 vacancies were notified. The applicant participated in the CBT-1 examination conducted on 23.12.2018, CBT-2 examination conducted on 04.05.2019 and in the results declared on 25.02.2019 and 20.09.2019 respectively, all the applicants were declared successful. Thereafter, in the next process, all the selected candidates were called for aptitude test for the post of Assistant Loco-Pilot on 15.10.2019 conducted by the respondent no.2, in which they have been declared successful by means of result declared by respondent no.2 on 13.12.2019. In the last process all the applicants were called for document verification on 09.01.2020 and after document verification of the applicants they were called for medical examination on 18.01.2020, in which all of them appeared and were declared fit under the category A-1 to the post of Assistant Loco-Pilot against which they applied under the notification dated 21.06.2018. Thereafter final result of successful candidates was declared by the respondent no.2 on the official website, whereby all the applicants were found selected against the notified vacancies to the post of Assistant Loco Pilot in grade pay of Rs. 1900/- pay Level-2. A photocopy of the result of selected candidates is being annexed herewith and marked as Annexure No. A-3A to this original application with Compilation No. II. It is stated that respondent no.2 thereafter released the panel of selected candidates who have been selected against the vacancies notified under Group-2 to Group-8 except the Group-1 on 14.12.2020 and thereafter the posting of the all selected candidates have been given as per group wise vacancies, leaving the vacancies of Group-1 only and no reasons whatsoever have been communicated to the applicants as to why their panel have yet not been released. Feeling aggrieved, all the applicants jointly and separately submitted their grievances through their