CAT Gives One Month to Decide Factory Manager’s Complaint He Was Passed Over for Junior’s Promotion

The applicant, a Junior Works Manager (Selection Grade), claimed to be senior to Respondent No. 4 in the consolidated seniority list but was not included in an order dated 30 June 2025 promoting 45 officers to Assistant Works Manager/Junior Time Scale (Group A), while Respondent No. 4 was promoted.

The applicant submitted a representation on 11 July 2025 and two reminders, but received no response. He filed the OA seeking, among other relief, promotion from the date his junior was promoted. At the hearing, counsel sought a direction for the respondents to decide the pending representation.

Whether the Tribunal should direct the competent authority to consider and decide the applicant’s representation dated 11 July 2025 within a specified time.

Whether the applicant was entitled to promotion and consequential benefits on the basis of his alleged seniority over Respondent No. 4.

The Tribunal applied the procedural principle that an authority may be directed to consider and decide a pending representation by a reasoned order within a fixed period.

The applicant relied on the Indian Ordnance Factories Service (Group-A) Recruitment Rules, 2002, Articles 14 and 16(1) of the Constitution, and Dr. Narmada Prasad Dwivedi v. Department of Defence Production, OA No. 200/0680/2019 (Jabalpur Bench, 17 December 2021). However, the Tribunal did not apply or adjudicate those substantive claims; it expressly left the merits open.

Although the OA challenged the applicant’s exclusion from the promotion order and sought promotion with consequential benefits, counsel limited the immediate request to disposal of the pending representation.

The Tribunal considered that limited relief sufficient at that stage and directed the competent authority to consider the representation, treating the OA as part of it. It made no finding on the applicant’s comparative seniority, eligibility, or entitlement to promotion.

The Tribunal expressly stated that it was not entering into the merits of the case.