MADNI AHMED ALI ARFAT SIDDIQUI vs SUI SOUTHERN GAS COMPANY LIMITED Ss

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MADNI AHMED ALI ARFAT SIDDIQUI VS SUI SOUTHERN GAS COMPANY LIMITED Ss. 42 & 54---Suit for declaration and permanent injunction---Plaintiff had challenged the public notice given by defendant No. 1 (Sui Southern Gas Company Limited) through defendant No. 2 for recruitment of professionals in senior management positions---Plaintiff (employee of defendant No.1) was not found fit for promotion---Validity---Merely because rules were non-statutory and relationship of defendant No.1 and plaintiff was that of master and servant, it did not mean that plaintiff and such other employees were remediless---If the service regulations were violated or the established policies were deviated from to deprive an employee, from his career progression, then the suit was maintainable, because S. 24-A of the General Clauses Act, 1897, was also applicable to Defendant No.1, and while framing the policies for the employees, they had to act fairly, justly and reasonably---Posts advertised required specialized qualifications---In order to run the organization in an efficient and viable manner, it was not necessary that a senior management position was always filled up internally through promotion, especially when the present positions were on contract and not regular posts---Defendant No.1 and any other organization, especially of public sector, could hire the services of well qualified and reputed professionals in order to operate efficiently---Secondly, an employee could be considered for such specialized posts, only if he had the requisite qualifications---Merely because he fulfilled the criteria of length of service or any other general criteria for promotion did not itself create a vested right in favour of plaintiff---Defendant No.1 was not bound to promote an employee to the next higher grade if that post required specialized qualifications---Present qualification of the plaintiff should have direct nexus with the posts advertised---Record showed that plaintiff had done B.E. Electronics, thus, obviously he could not be considered for the post of Senior General Manager-Information Technology, which in the present times, was one of the most important posts in any organization; rather, sine qua non for viable operation of an organization, including defendant No.1.---Similarly, plaintiff was in the last year considered for the position of HSEQA and was not found fit and nothing was placed on record that what further qualification the plaintiff had acquired to become eligible for the said position---As far as the third post of Senior General Manager, Procurement and Inventory Management, was concerned, it was sole discretion of Defendant No.1 to consider any of the employees including plaintiff, if the defendant No.1 was unable to hire/induct a suitable candidate externally---In the previous and present Service Regulations, H.R. Manual and Employment Policies, nothing had been shown, which could be termed as violative of any principle of law or statutory provisions---Moreover, it was discretion of the board of defendant No.1 to modify, amend, replace and frame policies in accordance with the present day requirement---Suit was dismissed accordingly.

MADNI AHMED ALI ARFAT SIDDIQUI vs SUI SOUTHERN GAS COMPANY LIMITED Ss — 2024 PLC(CS) 431 KARACHI-HIGH-COURT-SINDH

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