TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2014 (3) TMI 820
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....radesh. The selection into the IAS is governed by the All India Services Act 1951, and IAS (Recruitment) Rules 1954. There are three sources for being selected into the IAS as per the IAS (Recruitment) Rules 1954. They are:- (i) by direct recruitment; (ii) by promotion of a substantive member of a state civil service and (iii) by selection from amongst those persons who hold gazetted posts in substantive capacity in connection with the affairs of the State, and who are not members of a State Civil Service. 4. The vacancies in the IAS cadre for each particular State are notified by the Central Government. In the present case, we are concerned with the three vacancies meant for category (iii) above viz. the officers of Non State Civil Services, which were notified for the year 2011. The case of the appellant is that, though she was eligible for being taken into the panel for consideration, she lost her opportunity due to the erroneous interpretation of the relevant rules by the respondent No. 1, State of Andhra Pradesh. At the relevant time, she was working as the Assistant Commissioner of the Sales Tax, and she satisfied all the eligibility criteria, yet the Principal Secretary, De....
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....er or orders as this Hon'ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case." 7. The CAT, however, declined to grant the interim relief that the appellant had prayed for. The appellant therefore, carried the matter to the Andhra Pradesh High Court, where the High Court has held the restriction of the zone of consideration to be valid. Being aggrieved by this order, the appellant has filed this appeal by Special Leave. 8. Mr. P.S. Narshimha, learned senior counsel appeared for the appellant, Mr. A.T.M. Rangaramanujam, learned senior counsel appeared for the first respondent State of Andhra Pradesh, and the Principal Secretary to the Department of Revenue (Commercial Taxes) Andhra Pradesh, and the Commissioner of Commercial Tax, Andhra Pradesh. Mr. P.P. Malhotra, Additional Solicitor General has appeared for respondent No. 4 Union of India and Mr. Radhakrishnan, learned senior counsel for respondent No. 5 Union Public Service Commission. 9. It was pointed out by Mr. Narshimha, learned counsel for the appellant, that the relevant regulations for our purpose are the I.A.S. (Appointment by Selection) Regulations, 1997. Clause No. 3, regulation Nos. 3 and 4 thereof,....
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....te Government. The number of vacancies to be determined, shall not exceed the number of substantive vacancies, as on the first day of January of the year, in which the meeting of the selection committee is held. Regulation No. 4 lays down, that the State Government has to send the proposal for consideration of the committee. It is important to note that while sending the recommendations from Non Civil Services section, the Government has to see that (i) the person concerned is a person of outstanding merit and ability, (ii) he holds a Gazetted post in a substantive capacity, (iii) he has completed at least 8 years of continuous service on the first day of January of the year in which his case is being considered, (iv) the person must belong to a post which has been declared equivalent to the post of Deputy Collector in the State Civil Service, (v) the number of persons proposed for consideration of the committee shall not exceed five times the number of vacancies, and (vi) the persons to be recommended should not have attained the age of 54 years on the first day of January of that year in which the names are considered by the committee. 11. As far as the equivalence with the post....
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....ly ensured before sending the proposals. An Officer who is facing disciplinary enquiries and against whom adverse remarks are recorded in the ACR or whose integrity is not certified, cannot unequivocally be said to be of outstanding merit and ability." 13. The Commissioner of Commercial Tax, Andhra Pradesh by his letter dated 18.6.2010 sought a clarification whether all the eligible officers in the cadre of Assistant Commissioner and above would be considered as eligible, if they were of substantive ability, had completed the minimum years of service, and had not crossed the age of 54 years as on 1.1.2010. The Commissioner got a reply that the necessary instructions may be adhered to scrupulously. He subsequently got another letter dated 1.7.2010 from the Principal Secretary, of the Revenue (CT-I) Department, that the names of officers from the cadre of Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and above, who are of outstanding merit and are eligible, may be forwarded. It so happened, that the names which were sent for consideration were, however, only of the Joint Commissioners and Additional Commissioners and not Assistant Commissioners. It is, therefore, that the appellant fil....
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....upto the level of Additional Commissioners and Joint Commissioners. Thus this is a case where the seniority rule has not been followed but the zone of consideration has been restricted upto a particular level......." 15. Again, in paragraph 23, the High Court observed that just because the appellant officers satisfy the criteria and are eligible officers, their names could not be forwarded. This is because the number of vacancies to be filled was 3, and the number of candidates to be recommended will be 5 times that number i.e. 15 only. The High Court therefore, held that the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes had the power to restrict the zone of consideration in sending the names above the level of Additional Commissioners and Joint Commissioners. The Writ Petition filed by the appellant was, therefore, dismissed. 16. It is material to note, that a counter affidavit has been filed on behalf Government of Andhra Pradesh, where in para 4 it is stated as follows:- "4. I say and submit that there may be large number of officers who will meet above eligibility but number has to be restricted to five times the vacancies for consideration from all departments put together. Commercial T....
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.... previous five years the officer must have 3 outstanding reports, or that in the previous 3 years the officer concerned must have all throughout an outstanding rating etc. It is for the State Government to lay down by rules as to how the outstanding merit and ability is to be assessed, and over how much period. After all these tests are applied, the number of persons to be recommended will not be very large. However, once a candidate comes into the zone of consideration, and satisfies all the requirements, including that of outstanding merit and ability, he cannot be told that merely because he is junior in the seniority, his name will not be forwarded for consideration. The rule requires that from amongst the outstanding officers, 15 names are to be forwarded to the Central Government, and hence it is possible that amongst these 15, a junior officer may as well figure, depending upon the assessment of his merit. He cannot be eliminated merely on the ground that he is a junior officer, and that if selected he will write the ACRs of his superiors. 18. We have got to accept that, if the rules for selection contain a requirement, the same has to be applied uniformly and strictly, and....
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.... conducted some two years back, and asking the respondents to re-do the exercise after considering the appellant and other similarly situated candidates, would create lot of uncertainty, in as much as the appellant and such other similarly situated candidates, might or might not finally succeed in the selection process. Hence, it will not be proper now to set aside the selection of the selected candidates. Therefore, though this declaration is being granted, viz. that the appellant and persons situated like her were entitled to be considered by the committee, no further relief in that behalf can be granted to them. The opinion rendered by us will have to operate prospectively in the matter of application of the concerned rules, for the future selections. Hence, this appeal is being allowed in part. 21. We cannot, however, ignore that the appellant had to resort to this litigation for no fault of hers. The non consideration of her claim was totally unjust. Hence, even though for the reasons that we have stated earlier, the appellant can not get the relief in the nature of a direction to consider her for the selection which she had sought, she must get the damages for non-considerat....