The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Courts must not interfere in DPC decision on promotions'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 06, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Courts must not interfere in DPC decision on promotions'

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that courts must not interfere with the decisions of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) on promotions of government employees and no one can claim promotion as a matter of right.

A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran said that the guidelines relating to DPC "give a certain amount of play in the joints to the DPC by providing that it need not be guided by the overall grading recorded in the Confidential Reports, but may make its own assessment on the basis of the entries in the CRs."

`Overall assessment'

The Bench said "the DPC is required to make an overall assessment of the performance of each candidate separately, but by adopting the same standards, yardsticks and norms. It is only when the process of assessment is vitiated either on the ground of bias, malafides or arbitrariness, the selection calls for interference. Where the DPC has proceeded in a fair, impartial and reasonable manner, by applying the same yardstick and norms to all candidates and there is no arbitrariness in the process of assessment by the DPC, the court will not interfere."

In the instant case, acting on a writ petition from A.K. Narula, Assistant Commandant, CRPF, the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the Centre to promote him as Second-in-Command with retrospective effect and extend him all consequential benefits.

Mr. Narula's grievance was while R.S. Virk, another Assistant Commandant, was promoted, he was denied promotion though both of them had identical suitability for elevation.

He alleged that the DPC upgraded the rating of Mr. Virk for the year 1988-89 from "good" to "very good" which consequently gave him the overall rating of "very good" that helped in his elevation.

The High Court ordered his promotion with retrospective effect.

The present appeal by the Government is directed against this judgment.

Allowing the appeal and setting aside the impugned judgment, the Bench said that the DPC reconsidered the matter and had given detailed reasons why the case of Mr. Narula was not similar to that of Mr. Virk.

In the absence of any arbitrariness in the manner in which assessment had been made, the High Court was not justified in directing that the benefit of upgrading be given to Mr. Narula as was done in the case of Mr. Virk, the Bench said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi

News Update

Stories in this Section