Employer Has Power To Change Promotion Policy Unless Malafide/ Arbitrary: Chhattisgarh High Court

The observation came from a division bench of Justices Arup Kumar Goswami & Deepak Kumar Tiwari with respect to certain changes brought about by the State government in Chhattisgarh Secretariat Service Recruitment Rules, 2012:

"It is also well settled that the employer has power to change its policy in giving promotion to its employees...It is not within the domain of the Court to weigh the pros and cons of the policy or to test the degree of its beneficial or equitable disposition. The power of relaxation is within the exclusive domain of the State Government and, therefore, the impugned notification cannot be held to be bad in law."

The Petitioner sought quashing of the notification whereby the State had added a new Clause-(6) in Rule 13 of the said Rules, whereby relaxation of minimum length of service was prescribed in promotion from AG-II to AG-I, only for the calendar year 2016.

Petitioners submitted that all the selected 97 candidates, as per the conditions stipulated in the appointment order, appeared in the Computer Skill and Hindi Typing examination and as per the appointment order, their probation period would commence from the next date of passing of the examination, but in the final gradation list, seniority of some of the candidates was mentioned from the date of their joining, which violates Article 14 of the Constitution of India. It was further submitted that the impugned notification dated 21.6.2016 provides relaxation only for one year, which is also illegal and arbitrary.

State Counsel submitted that no discrimination was made and seniority of the candidates was also not affected in any manner. The petitioners have passed only written examination, however, they did not succeed in the examination with respect to Hindi Typing and Computer Skill test. 61 candidates including the petitioners could not clear the aforesaid examination, whereas other candidates had passed the aforesaid tests in the very first instance during the time of their initial appointment. Therefore, such candidates were treated as appointed from the date of issuance of appointment order, and the petitioners and other candidates who have passed the Skill test subsequently were placed below the other candidates, who have already cleared the aforesaid tests.

State argued that the said move comes within executive powers of the State to regulate the service conditions of the employees vested under Article 162 and 309 of the Constitution of India.

Court stated that it did not find any error in fixing the seniority of the candidates, as the petitioners have not passed both the tests and the candidates who were qualified at the first instance were placed above them. Court further said that the petitioner has failed to make out a case against the State where they have moved in an arbitrary manner without vested powers.

At the end, the Court held that it is explicit that there is no specific averment made about malafide exercise of powers for extending relaxation by the impugned notification nor there was any occasion to issue conditional appointment order to such candidates who have not passed the Skill test and to give them two years time to pass the aforesaid tests. As 36 candidates had fulfilled the requisite conditions earlier, therefore, they were placed above the petitioners in the gradation list. There is no material to show that the State Government has exercised the power for granting relaxation with an oblique or unauthorized purpose.

For the aforesaid reasons the petition was dismissed.

Case Title : Vidya Bhushan and ors v State Of Chhattisgarh with connected matters

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