Tribunal tells PGI to put off panel meeting

The city Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal has directed the Director, PGI, to defer a meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) for promotion of senior lab technicians to the post of lab assistant till November 25, the next date of hearing in the case.

The Bench has passed the order on an application filed by the secretary, PGI Medical Technologists Union.

The counsel for the applicant said the respondents had fixed a meeting of the DPC for Monday at 3 pm.

After hearing of the arguments, Rashmi Saxena Sahni, a member (administrative) of the tribunal, said this case was heard on October 25 by the Double Bench-II and a notice issued for November 12 for consideration of the interim prayer as no date was fixed for convening a meeting of the DPC on the last date of hearing.

However, the counsel for the applicant sought an urgent hearing as the date of convening the DPC was fixed for Monday.

The Bench says “I have gone through the facts on record and found that the representation of the applicants pointing out irregularities in the convening of the DPC of the Technical Cadre for promotion of Senior Lab Technicians to the post of Lab Assistant qua vacancy years 2023 and 24 has been rejected by the authorities. I find there is a major irregularity, as the vacancies for two years have been clubbed together instead of considering them year-wise and preparing panels years-wise. Further, there are some more discrepancies which have been pointed out by the applicants in their joint original application.

Since the issue relates to the common cause, applicants have filed a joint original application, the same will be considered on the next date of hearing. However, in the interim measure, due to the urgency and the infirmities pointed out by the applicants, it is necessary to provide protection to the applicants at this stage. Hence, the respondents are directed to defer the holding of DPC meeting till after the next date of hearing, i.e. November 25, 2024, when the issue of interim will be considered by the double Bench.”