"Very Unfortunate That High Court Has Misunderstood Our Order" : Supreme Court Expresses Displeasure At Manipur HC
The Supreme Court on March 29 expressed displeasure at the Manipur High Court for not complying with its February judgment (where the top court had required the case for promotion of an employee of the High Court to be considered on the basis of 2 years' ACRs), and for instead proceeding to convene fresh DPC to consider the case of other selected candidates also.Justice M. R. Shah reprimanded...
The bench of Justices M. R. Shah and C. T. Ravikumar was hearing a writ petition by an employee of the high court who claimed that she was entitled to be promoted to the post of assistant registrar on the basis of a seniority-cum-merit calculus. On behalf of the aggrieved petitioner, Senior Advocate R. Bala Subramanian assailed the decision of the promotion committee, inter alia, on the ground that the ACR for the year 2016-17 awarding the employee with a ‘Good’ grade was not communicated to the petitioner and the ACR for the 2019-20 having the same grade, was communicated only one day before the committee met. The crux of the petitioner’s contention was that these two uncommunicated ACRs could not be considered when assessing her suitability for promotion. The senior counsel alleged, “In the remaining years, the petitioner was awarded a ‘Very Good’ grade. If the ACRs for the years 2016-17 and 2019-20 are excluded, the petitioner would have gotten the promotion"
Noting that the claim of the petitioner that the 2016-17 ACR had not been communicated to her before the promotion committee met in 2021, remained undisputed, the court reiterated that uncommunicated adverse ACRs, even with a ‘Good’ entry (can be considered to be adverse in the context of eligibility for promotion) is not to be relied on when considering an employee for a promotion. Similarly, the performance evaluation report for the year 2019-20 was disclosed one day before the promotion committee was convened, even though the petitioner had 15 days to make a representation against the grade awarded to her in the report. Therefore, Justice Shah wrote, “Either the DPC could have been postponed or the ACR for the year 2019-2020 ought not to have been considered and the same ought to have been treated as uncommunicated ACR"
The court held:
“The sum and substance of the aforesaid discussion would be that as the ACR grading of ‘Good’ for the year 2016-17 was not communicated till the DPC met, the same is to be ignored and not relied upon for consideration of promotion. Similarly, the grading for the year 2019-2020 also is to be excluded and not relied upon for consideration for promotion as the same was communicated on April 8, 2021, and the petitioner was granted 15 days’ time to make representation. Before the representation could be made, the DPC met on April 9, 2021 and considered the case of the petitioner for promotion…The case of the petitioner for promotion to the post of assistant registrar is required to be considered afresh ignoring the uncommunicated ACRs for the years 2016-17 and 2019-20 and her case is required to be considered afresh taking into consideration the ACRs for the years 2017-18 and 2018-19.”