HIGH COURT OF TRIPURA AGARTALA WP(C) No.465 of 2023 Sri Uttam Kumar Das S/o Sri Nitya Lal Das resident of Dhaleswar, Ashram Chowmuhani, Swami Vivekananda Lane, PO-Dhaleswar, PS-East Agartala, District: West Tripura.

….Petitioner(s)

Versus

1. The State of Tripura, represented by its Secretary, Social Welfare & Social Education Department, Government of Tripura, New Secretariat Complex, Agartala, West Tripura.

2. The Secretary, Social Welfare & Social Education Department, Government of Tripura, New Secretariat Complex, Agartala, West Tripura

3. The Director, Social Welfare & Social Education Department, Government of Tripura, Ujan Abhoynagar, Agartala, West Tripura-799005

4. Tripura Public Service Commission, represented by its Secretary, having his office at Akhaura Road, Agartala, West Tripura

5. The Secretary, Tripura Public Service Commission having his office at Akhaura Road, Agartala, West Tripura

6. The Chairman, DPC/Selection Committee (Chairman, Tripura Public Service Commission) having his office at Akhaura Road, Agartala, West Tripura

7. Sri John Calvin Debbarma, at present posted as Joint Director at the office of Directorate of Social Welfare & Social Education, Ujan Abhoynagar, Agartala, West Tripura

8. Dr. Chandrani Biswas, at present posted as Joint Director at the office of the Directorate of Social Welfare and Social Education Department, Ujan Abhoynagar, Agartala, West Tripura ….Respondent(s)

For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Sankar Lodh, Advocate For respondent(s) : Mr. S. M. Chakraborty, Adv. General Mr. Tapash Datta Majumder, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Mangal Debbarma, Addl. GA Mr. Mintu Debbarma, Advocate Date of hearing & delivery of Judgment & Order : 26/03/2025 Whether fit for reporting : Yes HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE S. DATTA PURKAYASTHA JUDGMENT & ORDER (ORAL)

Heard Mr. Sankar Lodh, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. S. M. Chakraborty, learned Advocate General assisted by Mr. Mangal Debbarma, learned Addl. GA appearing for the respondents no.1, 2 and 3 and Mr. Tapash Datta Majumder, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. Mintu Debbarma, learned counsel appearing for the respondents no.7 and 8.

2. Admittedly, the petitioner, Sri Uttam Kumar Das and Sri John Calvin Debbarma (respondent no.7) as well as Dr. Chandrani Biswas (respondent no.8) were working along with Sri Arun Kumar Debbarma, Sri Bijan Chakraborty and Sanjit Rupini as Deputy Director/Programme Officer in Education (Social Welfare & Social Education) Department [for short, „SW&SE‟], Government of Tripura. Vide Notification dated 18.01.2023 in exercise of Article 309 of the Constitution and in supersession of the earlier Recruitment Rules for the post of Joint Director (SW&SE), 3(three) posts of Joint Director were created as promotional post from the post of Deputy Director/Programme Officer with 5(five) years of experience in the feeder post.

3. In 2021, a promotion policy was framed by the State vide Notification No.F.2(24)-GA(P&T)/2021 dated 22.06.2021 (Annexure R-1) for doing promotional exercises as a stop-gap arrangement in view of the fact that the judgment and order dated 09.04.2015 of the High Court was challenged before the Hon‟ble Supreme Court vide SLP(C) No.19765-19767 of 2015 and meanwhile, a large number of posts had fallen vacant to be filled up on promotion to avoid hindrance in the day-to-day discharge of administration of the State Government. The relevant paragraph nos.6 and 7 of the said promotion policy of

2021 are extracted hereunder for purposeful reference:

“6. Now, the State Government hereby notifies the following Promotion Policy, 2021 as follows:

(i) Rule 9 of the Tripura SC & ST Reservation Rules, 1992 and the provisos thereto shall be read in such a manner that only those SC & ST candidates who have qualified solely on the basis of merit and have never taken the benefit of reservation, will be treated to be own merit candidates and entitle to occupy the posts meant for general category and reservation shall be made cadre-wise.

(ii)