Content Provider | Supreme Court of India |
---|---|
e-ISSN | 30484839 |
Language | English |
Access Restriction | NDLI |
Subject Keyword | State judicial Service Supersession of seniority of Munsif in promotion |
Content Type | Text |
Resource Type | Law Judgement |
Jurisdiction | India |
Case Type | Appeal |
Court | Supreme Court of India |
Disposal Nature | Appeal Allowed |
Headnote | State Judicial Service—Power of High Court—Supersession of seniority of Munsif in promotion—If punishment or penalty— Suit, if lies Constitution of India, Arts. 235, 311(2), 320(3)(c), 14,16(1)—Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules rr. 49, 55A.This was an appeal by special leave by the Judges of the Calcutta. High Court against the decision of the City Civil Court at Calcutta decreeing the respondent 1’s suit. That respondent was a Munsif in the West Bangal Civil Service (Judicial) and had issued an injunction in his own favour in a case where he was the plaintiff. That order of injunction was set aside in appeal by the appellate Court. When the cases of several Munsif came up for consideration before the High Court for inclusion of names in the panel officers to officiate as Subordinate Judges, the respondent 1’s name was excluded. He was told by the Registrar of the Court on a representation made by him that the Court had decided to consider his case after a year. As the result of such exclusion respondent 1, who was then the senior most in the list of Munsifs, lost eight places in the cadre of Subordinate Judges before he was actually appointed to.act as an Additional Subordinate Judge. His case in substance was that this exclusion by the High Court amounted in law to the penalty of “withholding of promotion” without giving him an opportunity to show cause and he prayed that a declaration might be made that he occupied the same position in respect of seniority in the cadre of Subordinate Judges as he would have done if no suppression had taken place and claimed arrears of salary payable to a Subordinate Judge. The trial Court decreed the suit. A preliminary objection was taken in this Court on behalf of the appellants that the controversy raised was not justiciable. Held, that there was no cause of action for the suit and the appeal must succeed. There could be no doubt that under Art. 235 of the Constitution the High Court was the sole authority to decide the fitness of a Munsif to be appointed as a Subordinate Judge and the exercise of its power was not justiciable. Article 235, read with the service rules, clearly showed that a Munsif had no right to promotion that could be enforced through court. Rule 55A of the Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules had no application to the State of West Bengal and r 49 conferred no right to promotion but only a safeguard against imposition of any punishment by way of withholding of promotion without adequate opportunity to show cause and operated only when there was a disciplinary proceeding. It was not correct to say that the High Court should have consulted the State Public Service Commission since Art. 320(3)(c) of the Constitution also contemplated disciplinary matters. Nor was it correct to say that the respondent 1 was reduced in rank as a result of the High Court’s action within the meaning of Art. 311(2) of the Constitution. The word ‘rank’ in Art. 311(2) referred to classification and not to a particular place in the same cadre in the hierarchy of a service. All Subordinate Judges were in the same cadre and held the same rank irrespective of seniority. Losing some places in the seniority list, therefore, did not amount to reduction in rank. Nor were Arts, 14 and 16(1) violated. Equal opportunity did not mean getting the particular post for which a number of persons was considered. So long as one was equally considered along with others there could be no denial of equal opportunity if ultimately he was not selected in preference to the others. |
Judge | Honble Mr. Justice Bhuvneshwar Prasad Sinha |
Neutral Citation | 1962 INSC 128 |
Petitioner | The High Court, Calcutta |
Respondent | Amal Kumar Roy |
SCR | [1963] 1 S.C.R. 437 |
Judgement Date | 1962-04-09 |
Case Number | 193 |
National Digital Library of India (NDLI) is a virtual repository of learning resources which is not just a repository with search/browse facilities but provides a host of services for the learner community. It is sponsored and mentored by Ministry of Education, Government of India, through its National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). Filtered and federated searching is employed to facilitate focused searching so that learners can find the right resource with least effort and in minimum time. NDLI provides user group-specific services such as Examination Preparatory for School and College students and job aspirants. Services for Researchers and general learners are also provided. NDLI is designed to hold content of any language and provides interface support for 10 most widely used Indian languages. It is built to provide support for all academic levels including researchers and life-long learners, all disciplines, all popular forms of access devices and differently-abled learners. It is designed to enable people to learn and prepare from best practices from all over the world and to facilitate researchers to perform inter-linked exploration from multiple sources. It is developed, operated and maintained from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
Learn more about this project from here.
NDLI is a conglomeration of freely available or institutionally contributed or donated or publisher managed contents. Almost all these contents are hosted and accessed from respective sources. The responsibility for authenticity, relevance, completeness, accuracy, reliability and suitability of these contents rests with the respective organization and NDLI has no responsibility or liability for these. Every effort is made to keep the NDLI portal up and running smoothly unless there are some unavoidable technical issues.
Ministry of Education, through its National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), has sponsored and funded the National Digital Library of India (NDLI) project.
Sl. | Authority | Responsibilities | Communication Details |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education |
Sanctioning Authority | https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives |
2 | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project | https://www.iitkgp.ac.in |
3 | National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur | The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project | Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in |
4 | Project PI / Joint PI | Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project |
Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon |
5 | Website/Portal (Helpdesk) | Queries regarding NDLI and its services | support@ndl.gov.in |
6 | Contents and Copyright Issues | Queries related to content curation and copyright issues | content@ndl.gov.in |
7 | National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club) | Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach | clubsupport@ndl.gov.in |
8 | Digital Preservation Centre (DPC) | Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books | dpc@ndl.gov.in |
9 | IDR Setup or Support | Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops | idr@ndl.gov.in |