The Supreme Court has ruled that while an employee does not possess an absolute right to promotion, they are entitled to fair consideration for promotion if not disqualified under applicable rules.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran delivered this observation while allowing an appeal filed by a Tamil Nadu police constable, who was aggrieved by the denial of consideration for promotion to the post of sub-inspector under the in-service departmental quota.
“It is trite that the employee has no right to be promoted but has a right to be considered, when selections for promotions are carried out, unless disqualified; which right has been impinged, unjustly, in the above case,” the bench stated.
The constable, who joined service in March 2002, became eligible for consideration in 2019 under a 20 percent departmental quota reserved for in-service promotions. However, his candidature was not considered, citing a punishment order from 2005 involving postponement of his next increment for one year.
The bench noted that the punishment, which stemmed from a departmental proceeding over an alleged assault on a colleague at a check post, was later interfered with and set aside by the government in November 2009. While the constable had also faced a criminal case in the matter, he was acquitted.
Despite the setting aside of the disciplinary punishment, the Superintendent of Police had deemed him disentitled to promotion in 2019, an action the apex court found unjustified.
“In such circumstances, the appellant could not have been disentitled from a consideration in the year 2019,” the judgment said, adding that the appellant must be considered for promotion, regardless of his age at present.
The court directed that if found eligible, the constable shall be promoted from 2019 with all consequential benefits, since it was not his fault that his case was ignored based on a punishment that no longer existed.
The Supreme Court set aside an October 2023 judgment of the Madras High Court that had dismissed the constable’s plea.
