Court No. - 33
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 8622 of 2021 Petitioner :- Anil Verma Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Amit Shukla Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Ashwani Kumar Mishra,J.
This petition has been filed for a direction upon the respondents to create post of Senior Administrative Officer and Chief Administrative Officer in the department of Medical & Health Services.
Records reveal that petitioner was initially appointed as Lower Division Clerk and was promoted to the post Upper Division Clerk. He has further been promoted to the post of Head Assistant and last promotion has been offered to him on the post of Administrative Officer. This post is presently held by the petitioner. There is no promotional post available in the cadre and petitioner wants creation of an additional post of Senior Administrative Officer.
Reliance is placed upon the provisions of U.P. Government Department Ministerial Staff Service Rules, 2014, which contemplates a post of Senior Administrative Officer. Promotion as per the above rules is to be offered upon satisfactory working of five years on the post of Administrative Officer. Proviso to this rule, however, contemplates that where candidates are not available in sufficient numbers the zone of eligibility can be enlarged by including those who have worked on lower posts for fifteen years. It is the proviso which is relied upon by the counsel for the petitioner. Learned counsel places reliance upon a judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Food Corporation of India vs. Parashottam Das Bansal and others, (2008) 5 SCC 100 to submit that in view of the Rules of 2014 the post of Senior Administrative Officer be created.
Petition is opposed by learned Standing Counsel.
Law is settled that three promotional avenues ordinarily must exist in a cadre so as to avoid stagnation and heart burning. The petitioner has already been offered three promotions. It is admitted that there is no sanctioned post of Senior Administrative Officer exists in the cadre. Petitioner has been promoted to the post of Administrative Officer only in the year 2019 and has worked only as such for two years. The mere fact that rules stipulate promotional post of Senior Administrative Officer would not mean that such post would automatically get created unless it is sanctioned by the competent authority.
From the perusal of Rules of 2014 it cannot be culled out that creation of post of Senior Administrative Officer is automatically envisioned merely because petitioner has worked as Administrative Officer for two years. Creation of post is otherwise administrative function and unless it is shown that non-creation of post results in an arbitrary scenario, no direction would be warranted. No such exigency is found to exist in the facts of this case.
Writ petition is, accordingly, dismissed.
Order Date :- 29.7.2021 Ashok Kr.