Friday, March 26, 2010

'Govt employee has fundamental right to be considered for promotion'

The Supreme Courthas ruled that a Governmentemployee has a fundamental right to be considered for promotion and it is mandatory for the Centreand States to carry out cadre review of eligible officers for promotion to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

"The right of eligible employees to be considered for promotion is virtually a part of their fundamental right guaranteed under Article 16(Equality of opportunity in matter of public employment) of the Constitution," a bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran and A K Ganguly held in a recent judgement.

The apex court passed the judgement while directing the Centre and the UP Government to consider the promotion of two State cadre officers-Hemraj Singh Chauhan and Ramnawal Singh to the IAS.

"We hold that the statutory duty which is cast on the State Government and the Central Government to undertake the cadre review exercise every five years is ordinarily mandatory subject to exceptions which may be justified in the facts of a given case," the bench said.