No vested right to promotion against reserved vacancies exists pending completion of mandatory de-reservation procedures.

The applicant, a General category employee, was appointed as a Clerk on compassionate grounds in 2002 and promoted to Junior Assistant in 2016.

A post of Senior Assistant, reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC) category, fell vacant on 01.10.2019 following the retirement of the incumbent.

As no SC candidates were available within the department, the respondents attempted to fill the post via deputation through advertisements in December 2019 and March 2020, but received no applications.

Consequently, the department initiated the process for de-reservation of the post in June 2020 in accordance with Government of India instructions.

The applicant submitted representations seeking promotion to the post before her retirement on 30.06.2020, alleging that the respondents intentionally delayed the de-reservation process to deny her the benefit.

The respondents rejected her claim on 21.07.2020, stating the post was reserved for the SC category.

The applicant challenged this rejection, seeking retrospective promotion and pensionary benefits.

Whether the rejection of the applicant’s claim for promotion to a post reserved for the SC category, prior to the completion of the de-reservation process, is legally sustainable.

Whether there was an intentional or malafide delay by the respondents in completing the de-reservation process to the detriment of the applicant.

The Tribunal applied the procedures for de-reservation of reserved vacancies as prescribed in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Office Memorandum (OM) dated 27.09.1999 and OM dated 06.11.2003.

These rules dictate that a reserved vacancy should not be filled by a general candidate until efforts to find a suitable SC/ST candidate (including via deputation) are exhausted and the formal process of de-reservation is completed to ensure the administrative interest is met without detriment to reserved categories.

The Tribunal observed that the respondents followed the prescribed statutory procedure by first attempting to fill the SC-reserved post through internal candidates and subsequently through deputation twice.

The Tribunal noted that de-reservation is a "time-taking process" and should only be initiated as a last resort when it becomes "inevitable".

The court found that the respondents had taken all necessary steps as per the DoPT guidelines and that there was no evidence of malafide intent or intentional delay to prejudice the applicant’s promotion.

Since the applicant belonged to the General category and the post remained reserved for the SC category during her period of service, the Tribunal reasoned that she possessed no vested right to the promotion.

The Tribunal concluded that no legal or fundamental right of the applicant was breached.

Accordingly, the Original Application (OA) was dismissed as being devoid of merit.