Mohinder Singh vs State Of Himachal Pradesh And Another

Ajay Mohan Goel, J

By way of this writ petition, the petitioner has, inter alia, prayed for the following relief:-

“That writ in the nature of mandamus may kindly be issued, directing the respondents to extend the benefit of promotion to the petitioner to the post of Senior Scale Principal/Grade-A Principal and further promotion to the post of Deputy Director (Training) from the due dates and further the pension of the petitioner may kindly be ordered to be fixed accordingly with all consequential benefits.”

The case of petitioner is that he joined the service of the respondents in the year 1994 as an Instructor. He gained promotion in the Department and in the month of October, 2015, he was promoted against the post of Principal and he served as such at various ITIs. The petitioner had filed a representation for his further promotion, but nothing was done by the Department and he superannuated in the meanwhile. It is in this backdrop that the petitioner has approached this Court praying for the relief already enumerated hereinabove.

Reply to the petition has been filed by the State, in which, the respondents have given reasons for not promoting the petitioner, which includes the fact that for being eligible for the next promotional, post from the post of Principal an incumbent ought to have put in at least 10 years of regular service or regular combined with ad-hoc service, whereas, the petitioner was not fulfilling this criteria.

Be that as it may, fact of the matter remains that neither the petitioner was eligible for promotion to the next post, as on the day when he superannuated nor he had approached the Court seeking the relief of promotion before his superannuation. He filed this writ petition after he retired.

It is settled law that ordinarily an employee cannot approach the Court praying for the relief of promotion after he stands superannuated. An employee does not has any fundamental right of promotion. An employee only has a fundamental right of consideration but that right accrues once the employer initiates the process to fill up an available vacancy.

Recently, Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Government of West Bengal and others versus Dr. Amal Satpathi and others (2024) SCC Online SC 3512, has been pleased to reiterate that promotion only becomes effective upon the assumption of duties on the promotional post and not on the date of occurrence of the vacancy or the date of recommendation. Hon’ble Supreme Court further went on to hold in said judgment that as the incumbent had superannuated before he could be promoted, he was not entitled to retrospective financial benefits associated to the promotional post as he did not serve in that capacity.

In the light of the said pronouncement by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and further in the light of the judgments that have been referred by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the said judgment of its, this Court has no hesitation in holding that the petitioner after his superannuation cannot approach the Court seeking promotion, more so, as it is not his case that the promotion was denied to him on account of some mala fides and further, as it is clearly borne out from the reply filed by the State that he otherwise was not even eligible for promotion as on the day when he superannuated.

The petition is, accordingly, dismissed. Pending miscellaneous applications, if any, also stands disposed of.