The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Public Works Department (PWD) to issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to executive engineer Md. Firdos Rahmani, allowing him to join the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on deputation. The court observed that the denial of NOC to Rahmani while allowing another engineer in similar circumstances amounted to discrimination and violated constitutional guarantees of equality.
Justice Manish Mathur of the Lucknow bench passed the order on July 18 while hearing a writ petition filed by Rahmani. The petitioner had sought the court’s intervention after the PWD principal secretary refused to issue him an NOC, citing a shortage of executive engineers in the department.
The court, however, found the department’s reasoning unconvincing. It noted that another executive engineer, Sudhir Kumar Bhardwaj, had been granted an extension for deputation under similar conditions. “Grant of NOC to executive engineer Sudhir Kumar Bhardwaj 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,” the bench observed.
“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,” the court remarked.
Emphasizing that the state government, as a welfare state, must act fairly and ensure equal treatment to similarly placed individuals, the bench directed the principal secretary, PWD, to issue the required NOC to Rahmani within 10 days from the date of service of the order.
