SHILLONG, June 10: The High Court of Meghalaya has quashed two notifications issued by the Meghalaya government for the creation of a post of officer on special duty (technical) in the Printing and Stationery department and the transfer of the director of printing and stationery to the new post.
The verdict was passed by the bench of Justice HS Thangkhiew acting on a writ petition filed by Salgira Marak who had challenged the legality of the two notifications issued by the Printing and Stationery department on November 9, 2020, transferring him to the newly-created post.
The court said the action of the state government for regulating the recruitment and conditions of service through the notifications in the absence of an Act was “clearly an encroachment into a judicial pronouncement”.
Marak, who was posted as the OSD, has resumed charge as the director of Printing and Stationery even though the department is yet to issue any fresh notification in this regard, a source has revealed.
While hearing the plea earlier in the day, the court said, “Attempts have been made by the state respondents to somehow present a case that the impugned notifications have been issued with due consideration and made with the objective to remove the defects of the earlier notifications which had been pointed out by this court in the judgment dated September 17, 2020 and that the fresh notifications are no longer personal to the petitioner.”
“However, the very fact that the impugned notifications categorically state that they have been passed in partial modification and in continuation of the notifications dated August 08, 2019, which have been quashed by this court, leave little room for the state respondents to justify the impugned orders,” it said.
The court subsequently quashed the notifications and allowed the writ petition.
Senior lawyer UK Nair, who appeared for Marak, said the notification creating the post of OSD (Technical) in the Senior Grade of the Printing and Stationery (Technical Grade), was “untenable” as the Senior Grade is a cadre in itself and as per Rule 4(2) of the Printing and Stationery (Technical) Service Rules, each post forms an independent cadre and movement from one cadre to another must be in accordance with the rules.
Further, Nair also pointed out that Rule 7 of the Printing and Stationery (Technical) Service Rules which provides for the method of recruitment and the manner in which posts in different cadres are to be filled up does not permit or provide for the appointment of OSD (technical) in the senior grade.
The senior lawyer also placed his reliance on various judgments of the Supreme Court in support of his contention that an inter-parte judgment of a competent court of law cannot be overruled by a government notification.
Moreover, Nair argued that the entire action of the state government was to remove Marak from the post of Director of Printing and Stationery, which resulted in the complete violation of the rules and also amounts to sitting on appeal over the earlier judgment of the High Court, “which is impermissible”.
