Uttarakhand HC Limits Tax Inspector’s Backdated Promotion: Deemed Date Only If A Junior Was Promoted First

The respondent was appointed as a Tax and Revenue Inspector in the erstwhile State of Uttar Pradesh in 1999 and joined the State of Uttarakhand in 2004 after its creation.

He claimed promotion to Tax and Revenue Superintendent retrospectively, asserting that he was eligible from 1999 and that vacancies existed between 2004 and 2009.

The Single Judge directed the authorities to consider him for promotion against vacancies available during 2004–2009 and, if found suitable, grant promotion with consequential benefits.

The State appealed, contending that no person junior to the respondent had been promoted before him; that assertion in its counter-affidavit was not denied by the respondent.

Retrospective promotion may be claimed where a junior has been promoted earlier by applying the “next below rule”; absent that circumstance, a claim to promotion from an earlier date is not made out on that basis.

The judgment cites no statute or precedent.

The Court relied on the State’s unrebutted statement that no person junior to the respondent had been promoted before him.

Since the factual basis for applying the next below rule was therefore absent, the Single Judge’s direction to consider promotion against vacancies from 2004–2009, with consequential benefits if found suitable, was held to require modification.

The Court accordingly limited any entitlement to a deemed date to the circumstance where a junior had been promoted earlier.

The authorities were directed to examine the respondent’s claim, and he would be entitled to promotion from a deemed date only if someone junior to him had been promoted earlier.