India News | Allahabad HC Directs UP PWD Principal Secretary to Issue NOC to Executive Engineer for Joining NHAI on Deputation
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Allahabad High Court has directed the principal secretary (PWD) of Uttar Pradesh to give a go-ahead to an executive engineer for joining NHAI on deputation, saying the state government, as a welfare state, is required to act fairly in granting equal treatment to people who are placed equally.
Lucknow, Jul 29 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has directed the principal secretary (PWD) of Uttar Pradesh to give a go-ahead to an executive engineer for joining NHAI on deputation, saying the state government, as a welfare state, is required to act fairly in granting equal treatment to people who are placed equally.
A Lucknow bench of Justice Manish Mathur on July 18 passed the verdict on a writ petition by executive engineer Md. Firdos Rahmani.
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The petitioner had approached the high court seeking direction for issuance of an NOC from the principal secretary of PWD, claiming he was denied on the ground that there was a shortage of executive engineers in the department .
The bench observed, "Grant of NOC to executive engineer Sudhir Kumar Bharadwaj in similar circumstances, while denying the same benefit to petitioner Rahmani, is clearly discriminatory and thus arbitrary being violative of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India."
It directed the principal secretary, PWD to issue the NOC to Rahmani within 10 days from the service of its order, so that he can join the NHAI on the post of Deputy General Manager (Technical).
Reacting to the reason given by the department, the bench said, "It does not stand to reason as to why extension was granted to Bhardwaj for continuing on deputation, in case the department was facing such a severe shortage of engineers."
"It is evident that the case of the petitioner was in parity with that of Bhardwaj and therefore refusal to grant of NOC to him, while granting the same to the said person is found to be discriminatory," the bench held.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)