Civil Appeal No. 8200/2011 Arising Out of Special Leave Petition (C) No. 598 of 2009 With Civil Appeal No._8201/2011 Arising Out of Special Leave Petition (C) No.5318 of 2009 With Civil Appeal No._8202/2011 Arising Out of Special Leave Petition (C) No.13379 of 2009. Case: 1. K. Balarama Raju, 2. Mohd. Sanullah Ansari & Anr., 3. High Court of A.P. Vs CH. V. Subramanya Sarma & Ors.. Supreme Court (India)

Case NumberCivil Appeal No. 8200/2011 Arising Out of Special Leave Petition (C) No. 598 of 2009 With Civil Appeal No._8201/2011 Arising Out of Special Leave Petition (C) No.5318 of 2009 With Civil Appeal No._8202/2011 Arising Out of Special Leave Petition (C) No.13379 of 2009
CounselFor Appellant: V. Sridhar Reddy, Leela Sarveswar, V.N. Raghupathy and C.K. Sucharita, Advs. and For Respondents: P.S. Narsimha, Sr. Adv., K. Maruthi Rao, K. Radha and Anjani Aiyagari, Advs.
JudgesJ.M. Panchal & H.L. Gokhale, JJ.
IssueAndhra Pradesh High Court Service Rules, 1975; Constitution of India - Article 229 (1) and (2)
Judgement DateSeptember 26, 2011
CourtSupreme Court (India)

Judgment:

H.L. Gokhale, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. These three appeals arise from the judgment and Order dated 19.12.2008 passed by a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court allowing Writ Petition No. 11920/2008 filed by Ch. V. Subramanya Sarma who is joined as respondent No. 1 in all these three matters. The appellant in the first Appeal arising out of SLP No. 598/2009 and the two appellants in Appeals arising out of SLP No. 5318/2009 were respondents to the aforesaid Writ Petition. All the three appellants and the first respondent are employees of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, and the aforesaid Writ Petition No. 11920/2008 was concerning their seniority and promotion. The said Writ Petition challenged the decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on its administrative side granting seniority to these three appellants over the first respondent. The Writ Petition having been allowed, these three appellants have filed SLP Nos. 598/2009 and 5318/2009. The third SLP is filed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

3. All the aforesaid three appellants and the first respondent at the relevant time were working on the administrative side of the High Court at Hyderabad in categories (4) and (5) alongwith other employees of Division-II i.e. Assistants/Examiner & Typist/Copyists. They were interested in their promotion to the immediately higher post of Computer Operators which is in Category 3 (b) of Division-II.

4. The service conditions of all these three appellants as well as the first respondent are governed under the Andhra Pradesh High Court Service Rules, 1975 framed by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in exercise of his powers conferred under Article 229 (1) and (2), of the Constitution of India. The High Court administration issued a circular dated 24.10.2000 calling for particulars from the members of the High Court establishment for filling up these posts of Computer operators in accordance with the above referred rules. As far as this promotion is concerned, it was to be effected on the basis of a written and an oral test which were to be conducted by the officials of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

5. It was the case of the first respondent that under Rules 7 (7) and 8 (4) of the aforesaid rules the requisite qualification for the post of a Computer Operator was to possess a degree in Typewriting, capability in English in higher grade, and post-graduate diploma in computer programming or post graduate diploma in computer applications. He had this qualification and therefore he applied for that post, and when the test was conducted on 1.11.2000, he cleared that examination. Nine other candidates also cleared the said test including the three appellants in SLP Nos. 598/2009 and 5318/2009. However, they did not posses the aforesaid requisite qualification of post graduate diploma in computer programming or post graduate diploma in computer application. The High Court Administration however issued an order dated 7.11.2000 permitting them alongwith two others to acquire the requisite prescribed qualification within one year failing which they were to be reverted. In this order dated 7.11.2000 the three appellants in SLP Nos. 598 and 5318/2009 were shown at Serial Nos. 1, 2 and 3, whereas the first respondent was shown at Serial No. 4. The order issued by the Registrar (Administration) dated 7.11.2000 reads as follows:-

PROCEEDINGS OF THE HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH::

HYDERABAD

SUB-ESTABLISHMENT - HIGH COURT OF A.P. HYDERABAD - Promotion to Category 3 (b) of Division II i.e. Computer Operators- Orders - Issued.

READ:- 1. G.O.MS.NO. 156 Law (LA & J Courts.C) Department, Dated 18.10.2000


2. High Court's Circular ROC NO. 6017/2000/Estt., dated 24.10.2000...

ORDER ROC NO. 6939/200/Estt. 2 dated 7.11.2000

The Hon'ble the Chief Justice is pleased to pass the following order:-

The following members working in Category 4 and 5 of Division II i.e Assistants/ Examiners and Typists/Copyists who have appeared for the Written and Oral Test conducted by the N.I.C. officials on 1.11.2000 and who have qualified in the tests, are promoted and appointed as Computer Operators on temporary basis.

S.No.

Name

Designation

1

Sarvasri

2

K. Balarama Raju

Assistant

3

Mohd. Sanaullah Ansari

Assistant

4

T. Tirumala Devi

Typist

5

Ch. V. Subrahmanya Sarma Typist M.V.S. Navinchandra

Copyist

6

N. Chandrasekhar Rao

Copyist

7

V. Satyanarayana

Typist

8

L. Lakshmi Babu

Typist

9

P. Nagarjuna Rao

Assistant

10

L. Ramachandra Rao

Assistant

The members shown at S.Nos. 1, 2,3, 9 and 10 shall acquire the requisite prescribed qualifications within one year failing which they shall be reverted.

The above said appointments are made purely on temporary and on an adhoc basis without any preferential claim to future re-promotion or seniority and are liable to be reverted at any time without any notice and without assigning any reason. Sd/-

Registrar

(Administration)

6. It so transpired that this period for passing of the examination was further extended by the High Court for all the five candidates at Sr. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 9 & 10 above by one more year by a further notification of Registrar (Administration) dated 23.11.2001, during which period they acquired the necessary qualification. The respondent No. 1 objected to the fact that the candidates who did not possess the requisite qualifications at the outset were shown senior to him. He submitted his representation for getting his correct seniority in the category of computer operators. He made a representation on 2.11.2001, but that was rejected by the order passed by the High Court on 15.11.2003. He then sought the review of that order by his application dated 19.2.2004 but he did not receive any response.

7. Thereafter, the Registrar (Administration) prepared the gradation/seniority list of computer operators as on 1.7.2005 and invited the objections/representations on or before 10.11.2005 vide his notification dated 23.9.2005. The respondent No. 1 once again submitted his objection on 10.10.2005. In the meanwhile, the Registrar (Administration) proceeded to finalise the seniority of the computer operators for consideration for promotion to the next higher post namely that of Deputy Section Officer. In the gradation list of 19 employees that was finalized, the two appellants of SLP No. 5318/2009 were shown senior to respondent No. 1 herein. Since we are concerned with these three persons, we reproduce the entries with respect to them.

HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH, HYDERABAD GRADATION (SENIORITY) LIST IN THE CATEGORY 3(B) OF DIV. II i.e. COMPUTER OPERATORS AS ON 01-07-2005

Sl. No. Name Date of Birth Date of Educational Sarvasri: entrance into Qualifications Govt.

service/Date

of Apptt. To

the Category

1. Mohd. Sanaullah Ansari 14-07-1963 21-02-1990 B.SC, LL.B, *07-11-2000 Type (E) (H)

PGDCA

Department Pay Rs. Status of Whether Punishments Remarks al Tests the qualified for and detents Employee the next

promotion

Accounts Rs. 5640 Approved Qualified Nil Nil Translation Probationer

Sl. No. Name Date of Birth Date of Educational Sarvasri: entrance into Qualifications Govt.

service/Date

of Apptt. To

the Category


2. T. Tirumala Devi 13-06-1966 12-07-1994 M.Com, BAL, *07-11-2000 PGDCP, Type

(E) (H)

Department Pay Rs. Status of Whether Punishments Remarks al Tests the qualified for and detents Employee the next

promotion

CPC, Rs. 5150 Approved Qualified Nil Nil Accounts Probationer Translation

Sl. No. Name Date of Birth Date of Educational Sarvasri: entrance into Qualifications Govt.

service/Date

of Apptt. To

the Category

3. Ch. V.Subrahmanya Sarma 24-04-1961 20-12-1985 B.Com, LLB. *07-11-2000 Type (E) (H),

Type (T) (H)

PGDCA, PGD

in Cyber Laws

& Legal

Information

System

Department Pay Rs. Status of Whether Punishments Remarks al Tests the qualified for and detents Employee the next

promotion

CPC, Rs. 6950 Approved Qualified Nil Nil Accounts Probationer Translation

As far as the appellant of Appeal No. 598/2009 K. Balarama Raju is concerned he was at Sl. No. 1 in the earlier order dated 7.11.2000. He was already promoted to the...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT