Supreme Court Dismisses CSIR's Appeal Against P&H HC Judgment Reversing Promotion Granted To Its Two Employees
The Supreme Court did not interfere with the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which had reversed the promotion granted by CSIR to its two employees.
An appeal was filed by the Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) against the judgment of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The High Court had reversed the promotion of two employees for the post of Under Secretary on the ground that their promotion was in violation of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Administrative Services (Recruitment & Promotion) Rules, 1982 (Statutory rules).
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Sandeep Mehta observed, “ there was no impediment for the promotion by selection of respondent No.1 to the post of Under Secretary under the statutory rules. In view of the above facts, we are of the opinion that the action of the appellant in denying promotion to respondent no. 1 upon the post of Under Secretary was rightly reversed by the High Court.”
Senior Advocate Narender Hooda represented the appellant, while Senior Advocate Jay Savla appeared for the respondents.
CSIR questioned the decision of the High Court on the ground that the employee was not eligible to be promoted to the post of Under Secretary as he had never performed the duties of a Section Officer on independent basis and hence, did not possess the eligibility criteria under the statutory rules.
CSIR placed certificates on record which showed that the two employees were given the benefit of one year’s experience as Section Officers for being promoted to the post of Under Secretary.
The Court noted that these certificates reflected that the said service was utilised as Section Officers on attachment and there was no formal appointment of either of them as Section Officer.
The Court remarked, “Another plea was taken by the appellant before the learned Tribunal that the promotion to the post of Under Secretary was to be done as per merit and that respondent no. 1 was not graded as ‘Good’ whereas respondent nos. 2 & 3 were graded as ‘Very Good’. However, this aspect of the matter need not detain us because the promotion of respondent nos. 2 & 3 was interfered with by the High Court holding them to be ineligible for the post.”
The Supreme Court did not interfere with the decision of the High Court and held that there was no impediment for the promotion to the post of Under Secretary under the statutory rules.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals.
Cause Title: Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research v. J.K. Prashar & Ors. (2024 INSC 65)
Appearance:
Appellant: Senior Advocate Narender Hooda, AOR Jayesh K. Unnikrishnan, Advocates Rashi Choudhary and Keshav Pawar
Respondents: Senior Advocate Jay Savla, AOR Rahul Gupta and Sahil Bhalaik, Advocates Tushar Giri, Siddharth Anil Khanna, and Gulshan Jahan