Bhubaneswar: In a landmark judgement, Orissa High Court has held that a reserved category candidate can be considered for promotion and appointment against un-reserved vacancies on the basis of merit. Denial of promotion solely on the basis of some ones reserved category status constitutes a violation of his right enshrined under Article 14 and 16 of the constitution of India.
After hearing the matter at length Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi while allowing the prayer of the petitioner has specifically directed the concerned authorities to re-evaluate the promotion policies and promulgate appropriate rules to ensure the advancement of meritorious candidates, irrespective of their reservation status within one month.
While delivering the judgement, Orissa High Court has deprecated the clarification issued by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department and stated that such clarification dated 11.01.2019 is devoid of legal soundness.
The petitioner, Lalit Kumar Naik, one ST employee joined in Keonjhar district as an Amin in the year 2010 and was placed at serial number 7th in the gradation list whereas two other Amins of UR category who joined in the year 2012 were placed at serial number 20 and 21st. Though the ST candidate was senior and fulfilled all the criteria for promotion to the post of Revenue Inspector, he was denied promotion on the ground that the post meant for UR category cannot be filled up by ST candidate. On such basis junior UR candidates were given promotion.
High Court has held that the ST candidate being senior has fulfilled the eligibility criteria laid down in ODRS Rules as well as Criteria for Promotion Rules. In this regards several clarification issued by the Govt. with respect to promotion of reserved category candidates against un-reserved posts were also taken into consideration.
High Court has also relied upon several decisions of Apex Court which held that SC and ST Candidates selected in open competition on the basis of own merit will be treated as open competition candidates and they will not be counted against reserved quota. Moreover un-reserved posts in Govt. employment are not reserved for any category.
In the present case as the petitioner having completed 5 years of service as an Amin and successfully passed the requisite departmental examination in accordance with rules, is un equivocally eligible to be considered for promotion to the higher post. In this case Advocates P.K. Sinha and A.K. Chhatoi conducted the matter on behalf of the petitioner. The Govt. is examining the matter seriously and may fix responsibility upon the officials for whose latches reserved candidate was debarred from promotion for last 5 years, said one senior officer.