An actual promotion counts toward the MACPS limit of three career upgradations.

The applicant, a retired Superintendent, was initially appointed as an LDC on 1 December 1988 through a regular selection process, though on a casual basis.

In earlier proceedings, the Tribunal held that his service was to be counted as regular from that date; he consequently received the first ACP upgradation from 1 December 2000 and the second MACP upgradation from 1 December 2008

He was promoted as UDC on 27 November 2008 and as Assistant Superintendent, in Level 6, from 1 April 2017

He sought a third MACP upgradation to Level 7 from 1 December 2018.

The respondents did not grant it, and he later retired on 30 April 2025

1. Whether the applicant was entitled to a third MACP financial upgradation to Level 7 with effect from 1 December 2018, notwithstanding his promotion as Assistant Superintendent from 1 April 2017

2. Whether the applicant’s earlier ACP/MACP benefits and promotions, considered together, exhausted the three career advancements permitted under the MACPS

The Tribunal applied the Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACPS), issued by DoPT Office Memorandum No. 35034/3/2008-Estt. (D) dated 19 May 2009.

Under the Scheme, an employee may receive up to three financial upgradations during their career, ordinarily on completion of 10, 20 and 30 years of service; an upgradation is admissible when the employee has spent 10 continuous years in the same Grade Pay

The Scheme provides placement in the immediate next higher Grade Pay, and its paragraph 5 provides that specified past ACP upgradations are ignored where pay-scale mergers or upgradations mean they carry the same Grade Pay

The Tribunal also considered the Scheme’s paragraph 28(B) illustration concerning the interaction between financial upgradations and regular promotions.

No separate judicial precedent was relied upon in deciding the present MACPS issue.

The Tribunal treated the applicant’s 1 April 2017 promotion to Assistant Superintendent in Level 6 as a career advancement relevant to counting his MACPS benefits.

It reasoned that the first ACP, the second MACP, and the promotion to Assistant Superintendent together represented three financial upgradations or promotions during his career; accordingly, granting a further MACP upgradation to Level 7 from 1 December 2018 would exceed the Scheme’s limit

The applicant’s established service date of 1 December 1988 and the prior grant of earlier upgradations did not, in the Tribunal’s view, alter the effect of the intervening promotion.

The Original Application was dismissed, with no order as to costs