Promotion to the grade of Inspectors – Board Clarifies AP High Court judgement
The Inspectors of Central Excise are certainly not a happy lot. Many of them feel that they are neither paid good salaries nor given enough perks and status, but the ultimate goal of every other lower cadre employee in the department is to become an Inspector. The lure of the uniform, the false prestige, the power to deal with the mighty captains of industry make every clerk aspire for this coveted post! In its massive computerization programme, the department had recruited a large number of data entry operators, but as computerization reached frenzy levels, this post of data entry operators was abolished and they were merged with the clerical cadres. Strange are the ways of the Government! Now where do these DEOs stand vis a vis the other clerical cadres for becoming inspectors? Heated legal battles were fought and recently the DEOs lost the case in the AP High Court.
Now the Board has issued clarifications on how to implement the High Court’s order.
(i) The revised sanctioned strength of Inspector will be effective from 07.12.2002 i.e. the date from which re-structured cadre of Inspector came into existence. Apparently vacancies in the grade of Inspector prior to 07.12.2002 will have to be worked out on the basis of pre-revised sanctioned strength of Inspector.
(ii) Vacancies in the old grade (i.e. as existed before cadre re-structuring) of Inspector, Tax Assistant and UDC for the period till 31.12.2002 are to be treated as promotion quota vacancies.
(iii) One time relaxation granted by Cabinet / FM for filling up of all vacancies by promotion is to be applied to all the grades existing till 31.12.2002.
(iv) Apart from the relaxation for filling up of all vacancies by promotion, no other qualification relaxation would be applicable till. 31.12.2002.
(v) Vacancies in the grades of Inspector, which remain to be filled after 06.12.2002, will be governed by the provisions of the amended recruitment Rules, 2002 of Inspector.
Now almost all the Tax Assistants have become inspectors and the department has no clerical strength, for which they have to depend on the frustrated DEOs. In the name of cadre review, they seem to have destroyed the very foundations of the department.