Bablani Does it again - Wins in CAT
IF you wonder who Babalni is - Kishori Lal Bablani recently retired as Chief Commissioner in the Customs and Central Excise Department, which he joined as an appraiser in 1976. Normally appraisers don't become even Commissioners – but how did Bablani become a Chief Commissioner?
Here is the story.
KL Bablani appeared for the I.A.S. and Allied Services examination in the year 1974. He passed that examination and was placed at S. No. 221 in Category III. Candidates up to S.No. 198 were accommodated in Class I service based on the available vacancies. Since Bablani was at S.No. 221, he was accommodated in Class II service in the Customs Department as appraiser.
With effect from 10-11-1976, he was working as Customs Appraiser (Class II) in the Bombay Customs House. In 1983, he made a representation to the effect that in 1974, when the Department of Customs and Excise has notified available vacancies to be filled in by the candidates who qualified at the I.A.S. and Allied Services examination, the number of vacancies was wrongly intimated. Initially, this Department had intimated 35 vacancies to be so filled in for Class I posts. This figure was finally revised to 40 vacancies. According to Bablani, 97 vacancies should have been so notified in Class I posts in 1974 and not 40. Had the vacancies been correctly notified, he would have been appointed to Class I post in this Department in 1974.
The representation, which was made in 1983, was rejected on 23-9-1985. He filed a writ petition in the High Court, which was transferred to the CAT, which allowed his claim by the order of the CAT in 1994. The Government took the matter to the Supreme Court, which dismissed the Government appeal and so Bablani got his seniority from 1974 and got all the promotions.
In 2004, another appraiser made a similar writ petition in the Delhi High Court and the High Court relying on the same Bablani case dismissed the petition. - 2008-TIOL-409-HC-DEL-SERVICE.
Now Bablani has won another case in the CAT with regard to selection in Settlement Commission and it seems, he has won costs too. Perseverance pays!