New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that the High Courts should not interfere with the recommendations made by the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) to promote or not to promote a government employee or in the fixation of seniority.

A Bench of Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Justice Altamas Kabir said "it is now more or less well-settled that the evaluation made by an expert committee should not be easily interfered with by the courts which do not have the necessary expertise to undertake the exercise that is necessary for such purpose."

Writing the judgment, Mr. Justice Lakshmanan said, "no judicial review of the DPC proceedings, which are ordinarily conducted in accordance with the standing government instructions and rules is warranted."

The Bench noted that the DPC was not required to be guided merely by overall grading, if any, that might be recorded in the Confidential Reports (CR) but to make its own assessment on the basis of the entries in the CRs.

"The DPC enjoyed full discretion to devise its method and procedure for objective assessment of suitability and merit of the candidate being considered by it," it said.

In the instant case, S.K. Goel was initially asked to officiate in the grade of Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise. But after the DPC considered his case, he was not promoted to this grade.

The Central Administrative Tribunal rejected his plea against the DPC's decision. On an appeal the Delhi High Court quashed the Tribunal's order and the CRs for the years 1992-93; 1993-94 and 1994-95 and remanded the matter to the government for fresh consideration. The present appeal by the Centre is directed against this judgment.

Allowing the appeal, the Bench agreed with the submissions of Additional Solicitor General, R. Mohan that the DPC followed the prescribed norms and applied its discretion vested in it to determine comparative merit of the eligible officers and thereafter made recommendations in order of merit.

The Bench said there was thus no occasion or justification for interference in the order passed by the government as upheld by the Tribunal.

In the present case, the DPC had made an overall assessment of all the relevant CRs of the eligible officers, who were being considered. There was clear application of mind.

Hence the impugned direction of the High Court ought not to have been issued, as the same would have the impact of causing utter confusion and chaos in the cadre of the Indian Revenue Service, Customs and Central Excise Service, the Bench said and set aside the impugned order. The directions and observations of the High Court were wholly unjustified, it said.

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