BIHAR STATE HARIJAN KALYAN PARISHADversusUNION OF INDIA & ORS.

      12


A


              BIHAR STATE HARIJAN KALYAN PARISHAD

                                             v.
ll
                            UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

                                     March 1, 1985.

           [0. CHINNAPPA REDDY, E. S. VEKKATARAMIAH., JJ.)
c
            Constitution of India 19:i0, Article 16

            Reseri1ation of posts for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe:,-Group
     'A' serv/ces--Promotlon by selection method-Presidential Directive para
     9-Publfe Sec/or Undertaking-Government communications denying benefit of
D    restrJation-Quaslted.

            In case of promotion to posts promotion to which are by the selection
     method, 15% and 7f per cent of posts were to be reserved for Scheduled
     Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively. Para 9 of the Presidential Direc·
     tive provided that the aforesaid rule of reservation was also applicable to
     promotions by selection to posts within Group 'A' carrying a salary of
     Rs. 2250 per month or less. and prescribed that officers belonging to the
E    Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes would be considered for promotion,
     who are senior enough to be within the zone of consideration, and described
     the procedure to be adopted.

                                          ' 1982, the Ministry of Steel and
             By a I'Ctter dated the 8th APril
     Mines, Department of Steel, i"nformed the Chairman, Steel Authority of
F    India Limited, that in accordance with para 9 of the Presidential Directive
     there was no reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in
     promotion by selection to posts within Group 'A'. This letter in turn was
     followed up by a co1DD111Dication dated August 19, 1982 by the SteeJ
     Authority of India to ; the Chief Personnel Manager, Bokaro Steel Plant
     stating that nO reservation for scheduled caste/scheduled tribe candidates in
G    matters of promotions to any iirade within Group-A posts are· t0 be provi-
     ded, sjnce pro1notions within Group. A posts in the company are based on
     select i o method.

           The writ petition of the Appellant, complaining that the letter dated
     April 8, 1982 of the Ministry of Steel & Mines and the letter dated August
II
            BmAlt ST. KALYAN PRISHAD v. UNiON CChinnappa Reddy, J.)          13

    19, 1982 to the Chief-Personnel Manager of Bokaro Steel Plant purported        A
    to deny to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes the benefit of reser-
    vation in the matter of promotion to selection posts within Group 'A', was
    summarily dismissed by the High Court.

            Allowing the Appeal to this Court,
                                                                                   B
          HELD : 1. Para 9 or the Presidential Directive, which deals with
    "conccss=on to employee! of Schedaled Castes and Scheduled Tribes 'in
    prorE.ot!ons by selection method" makes abundanily clear that the rule of
    reservation ia also applicable to promotions by aclection to posts within
    Group 'A' which carry an ultir11atc salary of Rs. :l,250/-pcr month or
    Jess. It however, prescribes a procedure'diffcrent from tho u1ual pro~edure
    adopted in filling up posts res1rved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled        c
    Tiihos. [16F-0]                                      ·

          l. The letters of the Department of Steel dated 8th April, 1982,
    aod of the Steel Authority of India Ltd., dated August 19, 1982 are
    contrary to para 9 of the Presidential Directive. [17A]
                                                                                  D
            3. The writ petition is allowed. The letters dated April 8. 1982
    and August 19, 1982 are quashed. The respondents are directed to give
    effect to paragraph 9 of the Presidentiai Directive. [17A]

            CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 680 of
    1985.

         From the Judgment and order dated 1.2.1983 of the High
    Court of Patna at Ranchi in C.W.J.C. No. 1152/82.

            V.M. Tarkunde, P.H. Parekh and Miss Lata Krishnamurthi
    for tlie petitioners.                                                         F.
         V.A. Syed Mohammad, Abdul Khader, K.J. John, S.R. Grover,
    Manjul Bajpayee, D. Goverdhan, C.V. Subba Rao, R.N. Poddar, and
    Miss A. Subhashlni for the Respondents.
'
            The judgment of the Court was delivered by
                                                                                  G
            CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.       Special leave granted.

          The ~ihar State Harijan Kalyan Parishad whose writ p!lkition
    against the Steel Authority of India Ltd., the Union of India and
    others, was dismissed in limine is the. appellant before us in this
    appeal. We are afraid, notwithstandinlJ the summary dismissal                 !l
'



        14                   SUPREME COURT REPORTS                [1985] 3 S.C R

    A    of the writ petition by the High Court, this appeal has to be allowed.
         The appellant is rightly aggrieved with letter No. 18.(12)/81-SAIL-II/
         Coord dated April 8, 1982 from the Ministry of Steel and Mines
         addressed to the Chairman of the Steel Authority of India Limi-
         ted and letter No. PER/IR/7949 (pt) dated August 19, 1982 from
    B    the Steel Authority of India Limited to the Chief Personnel Mana-
         ger, Bokaro Steel Plant, Bokaro. The effect of the two letters,
         which we will extract in full later at an appropriate stage, is to deny
         to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes the benefit of reservation
         in the matter of promotion to selection posts within Group 'A',
         The Bokaro Steel Plant, we may mention here, is a unit of the Steel
    c    Authority of India Limited which in turn is a public limited Com-
         pany entirely owned, controlled and supervised by the Central
         Government. It is not disputed that the Steel Authority of India
         Vmited is an instrumentality of the State and is an authority within
         the meaning of Art. I 2 of the Constitution of India.

    D          The Government of India, Ministry of Finance Bureau of
         Public Enterprises, issued a directive to the Chief Executives of all
         Public Sector Enterprises on the subject of reservation for scheduled
         castes and scheduled tribes in appointments in public enterprises.
         While 15% and 7t per cent of posts are generally to be reserved for
         Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Trioes respectively, in the case of
    E    promotion of members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
         Tribes to posts promotion to which are by the selection method, a
         special procedure is devised by Para 9 of the directive. In the case
         of promotions within Group 'A', it is laid down. :

                    "In promotions by selection to posts within Group 'A·
    F
              which carry an ultimate salary of Rs. 2, 250 per month, or
              less, the scheduled caste/scheduled tribe officers who are
              senior enough in the zone of consideration for promotion
              so as to be within the number of vacancies for which the
              select list has to be drawn up, would be included in that
              list provided they arc not considered unfit for promotion.
    G         Their position in the select list would, however, be the same
              as assigned to them by the Departmental Promotion
              Committee on the basis of their record of service. They
              would not be given, for this purpose one grading higher
              than the grading otherwise assignable to them on the basis
              of their record of service."
                llIHAR ST, KALYAN PRISHAD v. UNION (Chinnappa Reddy, J.)         IS

                 A close perusal of the directive and in particular paragraph 9       A
          which deals with "concessions to employees of Scheduled Castes and
          Scheduled Tribes in promotions by selection method" makes it
          abundantly clear that the rule of reservation is also applicable to
          promotions by selection to posts within Group 'A' which carry an
+         ultimate salary of Rs. 2, 250 per month or less, but that the proce-
          dure is slightly different than in the cas~ of other posts. While the       B
          rule of reservation applies to promotions by selection to posts
          within Group 'A' carrying a salary of Rs. 2,250 per month or
      '   less, it is prescribed that only those officers belonging to the Schedul-
    ~(    ed Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be considered for promotion,
           who are senior enough to be within the zone of consideration.
          Thereafter a Select List depending upon the number of vacancies·            c
          would be drawn up in which would also be included those officers
          belonging to the Scheduled Castes and scheduled Tribes wh<> are
          not considered unfit for promotion. Their position in the Select
          List would be that assigned to them by the Departmental Promotion
          Committee on the basis of the record of service. In other wor9s,
                                                                                      D
          their inclusion in the Select List would not give them seniority,
          merely by virtue of their belonging to the scheduled castes and
          scheduled tribes over other officers placed above them in the Select
          List by the Departmental Promotion Committee. This appears to
          us to be the only possible interpretation of paragraph 9 of the direc-
          tive. However, by letter No. 18(12)/81-SAIL-Il/Coord dated the              E
          8th April, 1982 from the Ministry of Steel and Mines, Department
          of Steel, addressed to the Chairman of the Steel Authority of India
          Limited, the above-mentioned paragraph 9 of the direcllve appears
          to have been totally misinterpreted. The letter runs as follows :

                "Sir,
                                                                                      F
                      I am directed.to refer to your letter No. PER/IR/ 1914
                (pt) dated the 12th November, 1981 on the above subject
                and to say that in accordance with para 9 of the Presiden-
<               tial Directive on the subject there is no reservation for S/C
                ST in promotion by selection to posts within Group 'A'
                which carry an ultimate salary of Rs 2250 per month or                G
                less.

                                                            Your faithfully,
                                                                 Sd/-
                                                          (T.V. NAYER)
                                    Deputy Secretary to the Govt. of India"
    16                   SUPREME COURT REPORTS               (1985] 3 ~.C.R.

A         This letter in turn was followed by a communication dated
     August 19, 1982 from the Steel Authority of India to the Chief
     Personnel Manager of Bokaro Steel Plant to the following effect :

          "Dear Sir,
B              Kindly refer to your letter No. BCL-PER (OP)                          +
          5/51 /3251 dated 19th July, 1982, on the above subject.

                 2, No reservation for scheduled caste/scheduled tribe
           candidates in matters of promotions to any grade within             I


c
            Group· A posts are to be provided, since promotions within         'f.
            Group-A posts in the company are based on selection
           method. The principle of seniority ~ubject to fitness does
                                                                                   ....
           not apply in the case of our promotion policy since the
           employees have first to be found suitable for promotion
           through selection process, and only thereafter, at certain
           levels, are the promotions made in the order of seniority of
D
         ' those selected.·

                                                     Yours faithfully.
                                                          Sd/-
                                                    (P.N. Singh)
E                                              Deputy Director <IR)"

          It is at once seen that the two letters are contrary to para-
    graph 9 of the Presidential Directive on which they purport to
    place reliance. Paragraph 9 of the Presidential Directive no where
    says that the rule of reservation does not apply to promotion by
    selection to posts within Group A which carry an ultimate salary
    of Rs. 225) per month or less. Oa the other hand paragraph 9 of
    the Presidential Directive proceeds on the basic assumption that the
    rule of reservation does apply but prescribes a certain procedure to
    be followed, a procedure different from the usual procedure adopted
    in filling up posts reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled                  )

    Tribes. It is indeed a matter of surprise to its that the Ministry of
G   Steel and Mines has chosen to place such an interpretation on para-
    graph 9 of the Presidential Directive. The stand taken by
    them in the letter dated April 8, 1984 is reiterated in paragraph 5
    of tho counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Union of India. No
    explanation has been given in the counter affidavit for what appears
    to us to be a plain volte face. We have no option, but to quash the
          BIHAR ST. KALYAN PAkISHAD v. UNION (Chinnappa Reddy, J.)            17
I

    letters dated April 8, 1982 and August 19, 1982 above extracted by             A
    us and to direct the respondents to give effect to paragraph 9 of the
    Presidential Directive with effect from the date or the Directive.
    We have set ont our interpretation of the Presidential Directive and
    effect will be given to the Pi esidential Directive in the manner inter·
    preted by us. We also wish to make it clear that the classification of
    posts will be on the same lines as mentioned in paragraph 2 of the
    Presidential Directive. The writ petition is allowed with costs.
                                                                                   B




    N.V.K;.                                               fetltfon allowed.