HC: No promotion for govt staffers during pendency of proceedings

Cuttack: The Orissa high court on Wednesday said that government servants cannot be considered for promotion during the pendency of either departmental proceedings or criminal proceedings or both against them.
The ruling came recently while the quashing of orders in which a single judge had directed the state government to give regular promotion in a batch of cases of government servants against whom departmental proceedings and criminal proceedings were pending. The state government had filed writ appeals challenging the single judge’s orders.
While considering the writ appeals, the HC said the general administration department issued office memorandums (OMs) from time to time since 1994. But none of them envisaged or permitted promotion to a government servant either on regular or on ad hoc basis during the pendency of a criminal case involving such government servant.
The plea of the counsel appearing for the respondents (government servants) that they should be granted at least one ‘ad hoc promotion’ is also without any legal basis in light of the OMs and the settled position in law.
The two-judge bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Gourishankar Satapathy said, “In the light of these orders of the government, it is not possible for this court to sustain the impugned orders of the single judge in the present cases directing the state government to grant regular promotion to the appellants (government servants) even with the caveat that such promotion would be subject to the outcome of the criminal case against such government servant.” “The said impugned orders of the single judge are accordingly hereby set aside,” the bench said in its May 11 order, a copy of which was made available on Tuesday.
According to the case records the criminal case involving the respondents (government servants) in the present appeals is still pending before the court of the special judge (vigilance) at various stages. In some cases, even a chargesheet is yet to be filed and in other charges may or may not have been framed; in certain other cases, trial is in progress.