CHANDIGARH, Nov 1: A bench of Central Administrative Tribunal comprising vice-chairman R.K. Nehru and administrative member V.K. Majotra allowed the claim of A. Sigalingam, Executive Engineer of Engineering Department, Chandigarh Administration, for grant of selection grade with effect from September 14, 1982.Under the instructions issued by the Chandigarh Administration, selection grade would be admissible to an individual officer on completion of 15 years of service. The case of the applicant was that one Rajinder Singh was granted selection grade with effect from September 1982 and, therefore, he was also entitled to the higher grade from the said date.The respondents refuted the claim of the applicant on the ground that the petition was time barred in as much as claim was made from the year 1982 but the case was filed in 1996. The administration further alleged that as the applicant had not completed 15 years of service and as such he was not entitled to the selection grade.After considering rival contentions, the bench observed that the department itself granted selection grade to the juniors of the applicant in the year 1994 and he submitted representation and it was after the expiry of period of 6 months that he approached the Tribunal and as such the petition was not time barred.Rejecting the plea of the department that the applicant had not completed 15 years of service, the bench held that same was not valid ground to deny the same as if any junior is granted selection grade, the denial of such benefit to senior would be discriminatory and no junior in the same grade can be given higher pay scale than his senior unless the pay of the junior is personal to him. Allowing the claim of the applicant, the bench directed the respondents to grant selection grade to the applicant with effect from September 1982 with all consequential benefits including arrears of pay and allowance and to comply with the directions within 15 days.UPSC directed to declare result of lecturers' interview n the Central Administrative Tribunal bench comprising judicial member Jasbir S. Dhaliwal and administrative member V.K. Majotra directed the Union Public Service Commission to declare the result of interview held for 6 posts of lecturers in Electronics and Electrical Communication in the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, in pursuance of advertisement dated July 26, 1997.The applicants had challenged the action of UPSC in deciding to withhold the result of interview for the posts till the conclusion of recruitment process, now initiated for one post of lecturer reserved for SC category advertised on July 10, 1999.The applicant agitated that the decision of UPSC was arbitrary, discriminatory and in violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India as the recruitment again initiated in 1999 was independent and a separate selection process and does not involve any question of inter se seniority among candidates against 2 separate advertisements.The UPSC stated that the applicants do not have any separate right vis-a-vis those of candidates to be interviewed in pursuance of the later advertisement and if the result of interview held for the earlier advertisement is allowed to be declared, it would cause a serious prejudice to the claim and seniority of the candidates to be recommended in response to the later advertisement.Rejecting the stand of the UPSC, the tribunal directed UPSC to declare the result of interview immediately.
