Rajasthan HC Upholds Reversal Of Certain Teachers' Promotion To Maintain Seniority, Says Not Granting Them Hearing Caused No Prejudice

Rajasthan High Court has upheld the unilateral reversal of promotion granted to certain Grade-III Teachers, in order to maintain the list of seniority.

In such a scenario, bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta said, the State's omission to give the teachers an opportunity of hearing did not cause any prejudice since admittedly, the persons who were granted promotion in Petitioners' place, were senior to the petitioners.

“The petitioners reversion is a natural concomitant of grant of promotion to the persons senior to them, which has been done in review DPC...Such being the factual backdrop, the observance of principles of natural justice, even if made, would have been an empty formality,” the bench observed.

The petitioners were Grade-III teachers who were promoted to Grade-II, but subsequently were demoted to their original post by the State without providing any opportunity of hearing. The petitioners challenged this order on the ground of non-observance of principles of natural justice by the State.

On the contrary, the counsel for the State submitted that the order was passed pursuant to review by DPC which was convened when it was revealed that certain persons, senior to the petitioners, were not accorded promotions. Hence, the DPC recommended granting promotions to the senior persons and accordingly the promotions of the petitioners were revoked.

The counsel further submitted that the petitioners did not challenge the eligibility or the seniority of the persons who got the promotions in place of the petitioners.

The Court aligned with the arguments put forth by the counsel for the State and gave the aforementioned observations. Furthermore, the Court held that,

“It is a settled position of law that non-observance of principles of natural justice per-se does not vitiate the administrative orders unless the petitioners are able to demonstrate to the Court that non-observance of principles of natural justice has led to miscarriage of justice and the petitioner held a plausible defence.”

Accordingly, it was held that the challenge to the order merely based on non-observance of principles of natural justice was not valid, and the petitions were dismissed.

Title: Arun Kumar Agarwal & Ors. v State of Rajasthan & Ors., and other connected petitions

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 13

Click Here To Read/Download Order