Supreme Court recently dismissed an appeal lodged regarding the promotion as their right. The top court said there is no such thing stated in the constitution.

The apex court mentioned that government employees can not demand promotion as their right. It further stated that the legislature and executive are free to introduce rules and regulations regarding the promotion of employees.

A three-judge bench, comprising of Justice J B Pardiwala, Justice Manoj Misra and headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud pronounced this major verdict saying “In India, there is no constitutional right call right to promotion for government employees. The central and state executives are solely responsible for enforcing rules and regulations by the post or requirement.”

promotion as their right
Image Source: Supreme Court Observer

It stated that the judiciary can not sit to evaluate if a policy suitably decides the selection criteria for promotion of the "best candidate" unless the policy violates the principle of equal opportunity, granted under Article 16 of the constitution.

Justice Pardiwala, while writing the judgement said, "There is always an assumption that long-serving employees have demonstrated loyalty to employing organisation and so are entitled to reciprocal treatment." He stated that over the years, the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that where promotion is based on the principle of 'merit-cum-seniority' a greater emphasis is placed on merit. Similarly, in the principle of 'seniority-cum-merit', a greater emphasis is laid on seniority.

promotion as their right
Image Source: Lloyd Law College

"The terms 'merit-cum-seniority' or 'seniority-cum-merit' are not statutorily defined by the legislature. These principles are judicial connotations that have evolved over a period of years through various decisions of this court & HCs whilst dealing with matters of promotion pertaining to different statutes and service conditions," the bench stated.

"It was quick to clarify that the above two parameters are not mandatory since these are not backed by law enacted by the legislature. These are products of judicial interpretation, which evolved while dealing with different types of promotion policies", SC said.

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