JUDGMENT :

S. N. Prasad, J.

1. The instant writ petition is under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India wherein the order passed by the Odisha Administrative Tribunal dtd.20th May, 2016 in O.A. No.2077(C) of 2006 has been challenged whereby and where under the Tribunal has rejected the claim of the petitioner to be promoted as Auditor while giving declaration regarding validity of promotion given in favour of respondent no.4 as Auditor from the cadre of Ferro Printer.

2. The brief fact of the case is that the applicant who entered into service as Jr. Clerk in the year 1985 was appointed in the office of the Joint Director, Geology, South Zone, Berhampur. During incumbency, in pursuance to a requisition made by the opposite party No.1 on 19.2.2002 to fill up the post of Auditor, the petitioner, having all requisite qualifications, applied for the said post on 15.3.2002. As per the statute and the guideline issued by the Director of Mines dtd.22.4.2002, the Jr. Clerks having 10 years experience or the Sr. Clerk having 5 years of experience can only apply for the post of Auditor. In pursuance to the said selection process the case of the petitioner was placed before the Departmental Promotion Committee, meeting of which was held on 12.9.2006 along with the case of the opposite party no.4, despite the said opposite party was not having the requisite qualification for appointment as Auditor, the Departmental Promotion Committee had recommended the case of the o.p.4 for his appointment to the said post of Auditor by ignoring and depriving the genuine case of the petitioner for such appointment.

The requisite qualification for appointment of Auditor as per requisition dtd.22.4.2002 is that the candidate must have passed the final accounts examination conducted by the Board of Revenue and the candidate must have office experience over 5 years as Sr. Clerk/Jr. Accountant, ten years as Jr. Clerk with passing of final accounts examination.

The opposite party no.4 was originally appointed as Ferro Printer in the office of the Joint Director, Geology, Dhenkanal Zone and till the date of submitting his application for the post of Auditor, he was continuing as Ferro Printer and the nature of duty of a Ferro Printer is to print out prints of the sketch maps and plans which is in no way similar with that of the duty of the Jr. Clerk/Sr. Clerk. Promotion stream from the post of Ferro Printer is Tracer and from Tracer to Draftsman which is purely technical in nature and in no way connected with the duty of Ministerial Staff of Auditor, hence under no circumstances the opposite party no.4 could perform the duty of a Jr. Clerk or Sr. Clerk for being considered for the post of Auditor.

3. The petitioner, being aggrieved with the action of the authority, has approached the tribunal vide O.A. No.2077(C) of 2006 raising his grievance questioning the promotion of opposite party no.4, but the Tribunal has rejected the claim of the petitioner while approving the candidature of opposite party no.4. the applicant being aggrieved with the same is before this court by way of the instant writ petition inter alia on the grounds that the opposite party no.4 is not possessing the requisite qualification as per the Odisha Auditors’ Service (Methods of Recruitment and Condition of Service) Rules, 1987, herein after referred to as the Rules, 1987, and as such his candidature ought to have been rejected by the authority but instead of doing so, his candidature has been considered and he has been granted promotion as Auditor which is absolutely illegal and contrary to the provision of Rules, 1987.

He submits that the opposite party no.4 originally belong to the post of Ferro Printer which has got altogether different promotional stream since the Ferro Printer being the basic cadre and the next hierarchy is Tracer and thereafter Draftsman, as such the Ferro Printer cannot be granted promotion in the cadre of the Auditor. Since the opposite party no.4 is in the ca