TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1967 (8) TMI 117
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.... also prayed for a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding respondents 1 & 2 to consider the petitioner's claim as the senior-most officer in Rajasthan to be promoted to the post of Inspector General of Police. Cause has been shown by Mr. C. B. Agarwala on behalf of the State of Rajasthan and the other respondents to whom notice of the rule was ordered to be given. The petitioner, Sri Sant Ram Sharma was appointed to the Indian Police Service on June 10, 1952. On September 8, 1954 by a notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, the Indian Police Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1954 came into force. Rule 6 of the said Rules required that a Gradation List of all Police Officers in the State should be maintained to ascertain their respective seniority. Accordingly, a Gradation List was prepared by the State of Rajasthan in August, 1955. In this Gradation List, the position of the petitioner was 5th. Sri Hanuman Sharma was shown as occupying the 7th position, Sri Sultan Singh stood 14th and the position of Sri Ganesh Singh was 17th. Rule 3 of the Indian Police Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1954 required that every officer shall be assign....
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.... being promoted to the post of Inspector General of Police. The allegations of the petitioner have been controverted by the State of Rajasthan in its counter-affidavit. It was said that the posts of Inspector General of Police, Additional Inspector General of Police and Deputy Inspector General of Police are selection posts which carry pay above the time-scale of pay and for appointment to these selection-posts an officer is chosen not merely on the basis of his rank in the Gradation List but on the record of his merit and past experience in the Police Department. The petitioner was appointed to the Indian Police Service on June 10, 1952 but even before that date Sri Hanuman Sharma, Sri Sultan Singh and Sri Ganesh Singh were appointed to the Indian Police Service in 1951 and they were already officiating as Deputy Inspector General of Police. Sri Hanuman Sharma and Sri Sultan Singh were officiating since April 22, 1952 and Sri Ganesh Singh since May 17, 1952. The petitioner was confirmed in the Senior Scale of Indian Police Service on June 10, 1954 but the other three officers were confirmed in the Senior Scale of the Indian Police Service on March 24, 1953, i.e., more than a ye....
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....to mean "a gradation list prepared under rule 6". Rule 2(g) defines a "senior post" to mean "a post Included under item 1 of each Schedule to the Indian Police Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 1955 or any post declared equivalent thereto by the State Government concerned". Rule 3 deals with the assignment of year of allotment and reads as follows:- "(1) Every officer shall be assigned a year of allotment in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained in this rule. (2)The year of allotment of an officer in service at the commencement of these rules shall be the same as has been assigned to him or may be assigned to him by the Central Government in accordance with the orders and instructions in force immediately before the commencement of these rules: (3)The year of allotment of an officer appointed to the Service after the commencement of these rules, shall be- (a) where the officer is appointed to the Service on the results of a competitive examination, the year following the year in which such examination was held; (b) where the officer is appointed to the Service by promotion in accordance with rule 9 of the R....
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.... perusal of Rules 3 and 8 of the Indian Police Service (Pay) Rules, 1954 read with Part B of Sch. III of those Rules that the posts of Deputy Inspector General of Police, Additional Inspector General of Police and Inspector General of Police in Rajasthan State are selection posts and outside the junior and senior timescales of pay. Rule 2(a) provides that 'Cadre' and 'Cadre post' shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Indian Police Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954. Rule 3 prescribes the time-scales of pay admissible to members of the Service and reads as follows: "3. Time-scales of pay-The time-scales of pay admissible to a member of the Service shall be as follows: - Junior Scale-Rs. 350-350-380-380-30-590-E.B.--30-770---40-850 (19 years). Senior Scale.-Rs. 600 (6th year under)-40-1.0001,000-1,050-1,050-1,100-1,100-1.150 (22) years. Selection Grade-Rs.1,250. Provided that a member of the Service holding a post in the senior time-scale may be appointed to a post in the selection grade and where he is so appointed, he shall be entitled to draw pay of the post in the selection grade; Provided further that a member of the Serv....
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....number of senior posts borne on that cadre reduced by the number of posts carrying pay above the time-scale". In support of his contention Mr. N. C. Chatterjee referred to the decision of this Court in P. C. Wadhwa v. Union of India.(1) But the ratio of that case has no bearing on the question presented for determination in the present case. The question involved in that case was whether under the relevant rules governing the Indian Police Service, a member thereof was entitled as of right to be promoted to a post in the senior scale as and when a vacancy (except a vacancy in the promotion quota) arose therein and no one senior to him was available for that post. It was held by the majority of the learned Judges that a consideration of the various rules would make it clear beyond doubt that a person in the junior time-scale of the service is as much a cadre officer as one holding a post in the senior time-scale or a post above the timescale and the whole scheme of the rules indicated that a person in the junior scale of pay had a right to hold a post on the senior scale of pay subject to the availability of a post in the senior scale of pay and his seniority in the junior scale of ....
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....ll super-time scale posts are selection posts and appointment thereto need not follow the order of seniority". In another letter No. 7/6/56-AIS(1) dated October 5, 1956 the Government of India has reiterated the principle of promotion to selection grade posts as follows: "I am directed to say that the Government of India have recently had. occasion to consider the question of the principles to be followed in the matter of promotion of I.P.S. Officers to the selection Grade when some of the officers junior in service were approved and given officiating chances in such selection grades earlier than their seniors. It is, of course, a well established principle that promotions to the Selection Grade or a selection post is to be based primarily on merit and not seniority in the service .............................." We proceed to consider the next contention of Mr. N.C. Chatterjee that in the absence of any statutory rules governing promotions to selection grade posts the Government cannot issue administrative instructions and such administrative instructions cannot impose any restrictions not found in the Rules already framed. We are unable to accept this argument as....
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....t the High Court has read far more into para. 3(1)(g) than is justified by its language. Paragraph 3(1) is in fact something like a legislative list and enumerates the subjects on which the District Council is competent to make laws. Under para. 3(1)(g) it has power to make laws with respect to the appointment or succession of Chiefs or Headmen and this would naturally include the power to remove them. But it does not follow from this that the appointment or removal of a Chief is a legislative act or that no appointment or removal can be made without there being first a law to that effect. Further once the power of appointment falls within the power of administration of the district the power of removal of officers and others so appointed would necessarily follow as a corollary. The Constitution could not have intended that all administration in the autonomous districts should come to a stop till the Governor made regulations under para. 19(1)(b) or till the District Council passed laws under para. 3(1)(g). The Governor in the first instance and the District Councils thereafter were vested with the power to carry on the administration and that in our opinion included the p....
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....ice in 1966. There was, however, a vague suggestion made by the petitioner in paragraph 68 of his rejoinder petition dated July 17, 1967 that "the State Government could not have possibly considered my case, as they considered and even in this counter-affidavit consider Shri Hanuman Sharma and Sri Sultan Singh senior to me by the new type of seniority they have invented for their benefit". Even though there is no specific allegation by the petitioner that there was no consideration of his case, respondent No. 1 has definitely asserted in paragraphs 23, 25, 40 and 44 of the counter-affidavit that at the time of promotion of respondents 3 & 4 to the selection posts of Deputy Inspector General of Police and of Inspector General of Police the case of the petitioner was considered. We are therefore of the opinion that the petitioner is unable to substantiate his argument that there was no consideration of his case at the time of promotion of respondents 3 & 4 to the selection posts. We must therefore proceed on the footing that respondent No. 1 had considered the case of the petitioner and taken into account the record, experience and merit of the petitioner at the time of the promotion....