NMC tells Bombay HC executive engineer and development engineer posts are equivalent

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has changed its earlier stand before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. At a hearing on Thursday, the civic body accepted that the posts of executive engineer and development engineer are equivalent to each other. The case concerns a petition by Vasant Dharkar, who approached the court over promotion and related benefits.

Dharkar had filed an additional affidavit in the court. In it, he claimed that he and another employee, Jambhulkar, worked at exactly the same post in the Public Works Department (PWD), and that the nature of their work was also the same.

At an earlier hearing, the NMC's counsel had opposed this claim. The NMC had then said that Dharkar held the post of executive engineer while Jambhulkar was a development engineer. It had also argued that the post of deputy engineer falls between the two posts, so there is a significant difference in responsibility and level.

On Thursday, the NMC's counsel said that after receiving Dharkar's affidavit, the corporation had sought information from the department. However, an inquiry was inadvertently made about the post of development officer instead of development engineer. Because of this error, the court had been told that the two posts were different.

After receiving complete information from the NMC, the court was told that executive engineer and development engineer are indeed equivalent posts. That means the petitioner's statement that the two posts are equal was entirely correct. The NMC also placed an affidavit to this effect on record.

After hearing both sides, the bench of Justice Anil Pansare and Justice Nivedita Mehta took the NMC's correction and affidavit on record. The bench clarified that the petitioner no longer needs to prove that he and Jambhulkar held equivalent posts.

The court adjourned the hearing after the petitioner's side sought time. Advocate C. M. Samarth appeared for the petitioner.