CUTTACK, India, April 14 -- Orissa High Court issued the following order on March 12:

Following are a set of four Writ Petitions:

(i) WP(C) No.6831 of 2019 by the State calls in question Orissa Administrative Tribunal's order dated 26.02.2018, whereby First OP's O.A. No.134 of 2017 having been favoured, a direction has been issued to the authorities to treat him as Executive Engineer in Minor Irrigation cadre with effect from 09.02.2006 and on that basis to accord him promotion initially to the post of Superintending Engineer and thereafter, to the post of Chief Engineer with all service & financial benefits such as back-wages and further, to revise his pension accordingly.

(ii) WP(C) No.6748 of 2019 & WP(C) No.6749 of 2019 by private parties seek to call in question Tribunal's common order dated 20.09.2018, whereby their OA Nos.866 of 2004, 1931(c) of 2004, 1990(c) of 2016 & PP 212 of 2006 have been negatived. In those OAs, they had inter alia sought for the quashment of Gradation List of Asst. Engineers of Minor Irrigation (MI) cadre dated 18.06.2004. In one of those cases, i.e., O.A. No.1990(c) of 2016 challenge was laid to the Govt. orders dated 05.04.2016 & 20.05.2016, whereby the request for holding the DPC for promotion of Dy. Executive Engineers of MI cadre to the post of Executive Engineer has been rejected.

(iii) WP(C) No.7280 of 2019 by the State seeks to call in question Tribunal's order dated 14.05.2018, whereby O.A. No.1013 of 2018 having been favoured, relief has been accorded to OP No.1 as has been done in its order dated 26.02.2018 entered in O.A. No.134 of 2017, as mentioned in Sl. No.(i) above.

2. FACTS IN BRIEF:

Full facts with all material details do avail in the Apex Court decision in Amarendre Kumar Mahapatra v. State of Orissa, (2014) 4 SCC 583 and therefore, only such of the facts as are relevant for our adjudication are stated below:

2.1. The Water Resources Department in the Government had four wings, namely, (i) Minor Irrigation Division (MID), (ii) Major & Medium Irrigation Division (MMID), (iii) Mechanical Division (MD) & (iv) Ground Water Division (GWD). One set of employees belonging to MMID had launched a spate of litigations before the Orissa Administrative Tribunal for setting aside the Gradation List of the Engineers of MID essentially contending that there were no different divisions as MID & MMID, and therefore, the Gradation List having been founded on an assumption to the contrary was faultsome. Other set of employees belonging to MID had launched litigation grieving against the deprivation of promotional opportunities.

2.2. The Tribunal treated OA No.134 of 2017 as the lead case and entered the impugned order dated 26.02.2018, whereby promotional benefits amongst other have been conferred with a direction grant revision of pay scales, back-wages, and consequent enhancement of terminal benefits, inasmuch as, the employees had retired. This has been challenged by the State in WP(C) No.6831 of 2019. Against the said order Review Petition filed by the State came to be negatived vide order dated 14.02.2019 which is the subject matter of challenge in WP(C) No.6831 of 2019. Other companion cases were also decided by the Tribunal keeping in view the lead case judgment.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=%2FE3WiyNUWFIaR1oBGE62Wmv9ZQn799Ibv4d8lOJsh3x%2F2g78jgWl4%2FkUJmu1iAjv&caseno=WP(C)/6831/2019&cCode=1&cino=ODHC010183092019&state_code=11&appFlag=)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.