An employee retired before panel preparation and never included in the panel is not entitled to notional promotion.

The petitioner retired from service on 30 November 2012. The crucial date for preparing the panel for promotion to Tahsildar was 1 July 2012, but the respondents deferred preparation of the panel until after his retirement, citing administrative work connected with Deputy Tahsildar panels.

The petitioner sought notional promotion from the crucial date and challenged the Government’s order dated 16 December 2022 denying that relief. The respondents maintained that the petitioner could not be considered because he had retired before the panel was prepared.

Whether the petitioner was entitled to notional promotion to Tahsildar from the crucial date of 1 July 2012, despite retiring before the promotion panel was prepared.

Whether the respondents’ administrative deferment of the panel’s preparation justified denying the petitioner consideration for promotion.

The Court stated that promotion is not a fundamental right, but consideration for promotion is; an employee cannot, however, dictate when the employer must undertake that consideration, and promotion panels are to be prepared within a reasonable time.

It applied Section 3(m) of the Tamil Nadu Government Service (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016, under which a retired employee is not a member of service and, on the Court’s reasoning, could not be considered for promotion when the panel was prepared.

The Court distinguished Geetha Mahadevan v. Secretary to Government (W.A. Nos. 930 and 931 of 2021), The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd. v. K. Kalaiselvan, and M.S. Velusamy v. R.S. Jeevarathinam, because those cases involved employees who had already been considered, included in a panel, or had challenged the promotion issue while in service.

The petitioner was not included in a promotion panel before retirement; unlike the employees in the authorities he relied on, he had not already been considered or included in a panel.

The Court accepted that the panel was deferred for administrative reasons and found no abnormal delay in the circumstances. Because the petitioner had retired before the panel was prepared, he was no longer a member of service under Section 3(m) and could not be considered for promotion. The cited decisions therefore did not support granting him notional promotion.

The writ petition was dismissed, with no order as to costs.