J&K HC Upholds Regularisation Of In-Charge Section Officer’s Promotion From 2000, Citing 9+ Years As Head Assistant

Dev Raj was promoted as Head Assistant with effect from 29 October 1990 and assigned charge of Section Officer from 1 August 2000.

The applicable Jammu and Kashmir Engineering Subordinate Service Recruitment Rules, 1997, prescribed five years’ qualifying service as Head Assistant for promotion to Section Officer.

The department had repeatedly recommended regularisation of Dev Raj’s in-charge promotion, but did not make a final decision.

The Central Administrative Tribunal directed the authorities to regularise his promotion from the date he was placed in charge or the date he became entitled to promotion, whichever was later, and to consider him for promotion as Administrative Officer with consequential benefits.

The Union Territory challenged that order by writ petition.

The Jammu and Kashmir Engineering Subordinate Service Recruitment Rules, 1997, Schedule-II-B, Class-I, Category-A, governed promotion to Section Officer and required five years’ qualifying service as Head Assistant.

An in-charge arrangement, by itself, does not confer a right to regular promotion; however, an eligible employee’s claim must be considered under the applicable recruitment rules.

A claim for promotion to a further post remains subject to consideration by the competent authority under the applicable rules and does not create an automatic entitlement to promotion.

In writ jurisdiction, the Court does not ordinarily interfere with the Tribunal’s factual findings absent perversity, conflict with statutory provisions, or other legal unsustainability.

The Court found that Dev Raj had been Head Assistant from 29 October 1990 and had more than nine years’ service in that position when assigned charge of Section Officer on 1 August 2000.

The petitioners did not identify a specific provision of the 1997 Rules that made him ineligible on that date or otherwise demonstrated patent illegality in the Tribunal’s conclusion.

The departmental recommendations and the prolonged failure to decide his claim further supported leaving the Tribunal’s order undisturbed, while the direction was to be read subject to the eligibility requirements in the Rules.

The Court also clarified that consideration for Administrative Officer did not amount to an automatic right to promotion.

The direction to regularise Dev Raj’s Section Officer promotion and provide consequential benefits was upheld; his claim for promotion as Administrative Officer must be considered under the applicable rules.