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Central Administrative Tribunal
Principal Bench, New Delhi
O.A.No.4576/2018
Thursday, this the 20th day of December 2018
Hon’ble Mr. Justice L. Narasimha Reddy, Chairman
Hon’ble Mr. K.N. Shrivastava, Member (A)
1. Himanshu Kumar Verma
s/o Shri Madan Pal Singh
H.No.13/9, Vikaspuri Colony
Fazalpur Rohta Road
Kankerkhera Meerut, UP 250001
2. V V Sai Praneeth
s/o V V Lakshmi Narayana
r/o H.No.S-2, 85/A, MLA Colony Road
No.12, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad - 500034
..Applicants
(Mr. Anirudh Bakhru, Mr. Sudhir Chandra and Mr. Shadman
Ahmed Siddiqui, Advocates)
Versus
1. Union of India through its
Ministry of Personnel & Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Personnel & Training
Through Joint Secretary
Department of AR & PG
Sardar Patel Bhawan,
Parliament Street, New Delhi – 110 001
2. Ministry of Home Affairs
Through Joint Secretary
North Block, Central Secretariat
New Delhi – 110 001
3. Union Public Services Commission
Through its Chairman
Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road
New Delhi
..Respondents
(Mr. Hanu Bhasker, Mr. Gyanendra Singh and Mr. Amit Sinha
for Mr. R V Sinha, Advocates)
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O R D E R (ORAL)
Justice L. Narasimha Reddy:
The applicants initially approached the Hon‟ble Delhi
High Court. The case was transferred to this Tribunal. In view
of the urgency, we heard the O.A. in some detail at the 1st
hearing. The O.A. was adjourned for today, to enable the
learned counsel for the respondents to obtain instructions.
Today, the case is argued at length. On the request of the
applicants, we are disposing of the O.A. at this stage itself.
2. The applicants participated in the Civil Services
Examination, 2017. The applicant No.1 secured 676 rank and
applicant No.2 secured 196 rank. They were not allocated to
Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Their next preference was
to Indian Police Service (IPS). This O.A. is filed with a prayer to
direct the respondents to make allocation of the candidates to
the cadres in accordance with O.M. dated 05.09.2017, purely on
the basis of merit and correct interpretation of the same, in
particular, the paragraphs (3), (4), (8) (iii) & (10).
3. In the O.M. dated 05.09.2017, the manner, in which the
policy for cadre allotment for the All India Services, namely,
IAS/IPS/Indian Forest Service (IFoS), is indicated. The entire
States/Joint Cadres are divided into 5 Zones for this purpose
and in each zone, respective States cadres are indicated.
Paragraph 2 of the O.M. reads as under:-
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“2.
The States/Joint Cadres shall be divided into the
following five Zones:-
i.
Zone-I (AGMUT, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana)
ii.
Zone-II (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and
Odisha)
iii.
Zone-III (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh
and Chhattisgarh)
iv.
Zone-IV (West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam-Meghalaya,
Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland)
v.
Zone-IV (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu and Kerala).”
4. The candidates are required to exercise their options not
only with respect to zones but also to the cadres. The manner, in
which the options are to be exercised, is indicated in paragraphs
(3) & (4), which read as under:-
“3.
The candidates shall first give their choice in the
descending order of preference from amongst the various
Zones. Thereafter the candidates will indicate one
preference of cadre from each preferred zone. The
candidates will indicate their second cadre preference for
every preferred zone thereafter. Similar process will
continue till a preference for all the cadres is indicated by
the candidate. It is to be noted that preference for the
zones will remain in the same order and no change in the
order of preference for the zones/cadres will be permitted.
4. If a candidate does not give any preference for any
of the Zones/Cadres, it will be presumed that he has no
specific preference for those Zones/cadres. Accordingly, if
he is not allocated
