The single judge bench of the Jharkhand High Court held that though the promotion is not a right of an employee, but the right of consideration is accrued when junior to the employee concerned has been considered for promotion.
Brief facts
The factual matrix of the case is that the present writ petition has been filed by the Petitioner in order to direct the Respondent to consider his case for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer, as several other juniors to the petitioner have been promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer.
Contentions of the Petitioner
The Petitioner contended that even though the Petitioner was eligible for promotion his case was not considered, merely because of the absence of ACR of the Petitioner, his case could not be considered by the Departmental Promotion Committee. It was furthermore contended that the custodian of the ACR is the State/Department and it is not a business of the employee to keep the ACR with him. Also, it was contended that the entire service records of the petitioner were unblemished and as such, a direction be given to the respondent-State to consider his case for promotion from the date the juniors to him were promoted.
Observations of the court
The Hon’ble Court observed that even though a promotion is not a right granted to an employee, an employee has the right to be considered for promotion when junior to the employee concerned has been considered for promotion.
The court noted that the case of the Petitioner was not considered due to the non-availability of ACR. Furthermore, the custodian of the ACR is the Department/ State and it is not supposed to keep the ACR with the employee.
Based on these considerations, the court directed the state to consider the case of the petitioner for promotion from the date his juniors have been promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer, if there is no other legal impediment.
The decision of the court
With the above direction, the court allowed the Writ Petition.
Case Title: Daya Ram V. The State of Jharkhand
Coram: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Deepak Roshan
Case No.: W.P.(S) No. 4276 of 2024
Advocate for the Petitioner: Mr. Mohan Kumar Dubey, Advocate
Advocate for the Respondent: Mr. Sanket Khanna, A.C. to AAG-V
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