Promotion to Senior Assistant must be considered under the 1997 Rules without insisting on Secretariat Assistants Training Course qualification.

The applicants are Junior Assistants serving in the Jal Shakti Department of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

They sought consideration for promotion to the post of Senior Assistant under the Jammu and Kashmir Engineering (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rules, 1997, without being required to qualify the Secretariat Assistants Training Course.

Their grievance arose from Government Order No. 318-JK(GAD) of 2021 dated 8 April 2021, which prescribed qualification of that course as a condition for promotion.

The applicants relied on the Tribunal’s earlier judgment dated 10 July 2025 in Jagmeet Singh & Ors. v. Union Territory of J&K & Ors., O.A. No. 1241/2023, whereby Clause 4 of the Government Order was quashed.

Their application was filed under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985.

The Tribunal also allowed their application under Rule 4(5) of the Central Administrative Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1987 to join and pursue the proceedings collectively.

Whether the applicants, working as Junior Assistants, were entitled to consideration for promotion to Senior Assistant under the Jammu and Kashmir Engineering (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rules, 1997, without the respondents insisting upon qualification of the Secretariat Assistants Training Course?

Whether the respondents were required to consider the applicants’ promotion claims in light of the Tribunal’s judgment dated 10 July 2025 in Jagmeet Singh, which had quashed Clause 4 of Government Order No. 318-JK(GAD) of 2021?

The proceedings were maintainable under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, which permits an aggrieved public servant to challenge service-related actions before the Tribunal.

The Tribunal applied Rule 4(5) of the Central Administrative Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1987, permitting applicants with a common grievance to join and pursue proceedings collectively.

On the substantive service issue, the Tribunal applied the Jammu and Kashmir Engineering (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rules, 1997, issued under SRO 180 dated 26 May 1997, as the governing recruitment and promotion rules.

It further directed consideration in accordance with the ratio of Jagmeet Singh & Ors. v. Union Territory of J&K & Ors., O.A. No. 1241/2023, decided on 10 July 2025, in which Clause 4 of Government Order No. 318-JK(GAD) of 2021 was quashed insofar as it imposed the relevant training-course qualification for promotion.

The Tribunal noted that the applicants’ claim was founded on the governing 1997 Recruitment Rules and on the legal effect of the earlier Jagmeet Singh decision, which had invalidated the condition requiring qualification of the Secretariat Assistants Training Course.

Since the controversy concerned the proper consideration of the applicants’ promotion claims rather than an immediate entitlement to promotion, the Tribunal directed the competent authorities to examine their cases strictly under the 1997 Rules and in light of the earlier judgment.

The Tribunal did not itself determine the applicants’ comparative seniority, eligibility, or entitlement to promotion; those matters were left to the competent authority in accordance with law.

The competent authority was directed to pass an appropriate order within six weeks from service of a certified copy of the Tribunal’s order on the official respondents.

The Original Application and pending Miscellaneous Applications were disposed of, with no order as to costs.