The Supreme Court has upheld a crucial principle regarding employment promotions, ruling that a promotion becomes effective from the date it is granted, not from when a vacancy arises or a post is created. This decision came in response to an appeal by the Bihar State Electricity Board, which contested an employee’s claim for retrospective promotion.
The bench, comprising Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah, emphasized that while employees have a fundamental right to be considered for promotion, there is no inherent right to the promotion itself. They stated, “A vacancy does not automatically confer a right to retrospective promotion. It is only when a vacancy actually occurs, and the prescribed process is followed, that an employee can be granted promotion.”
In this case, the employee, physically challenged and belonging to the Scheduled Caste category, had been promoted to the post of Joint Secretary on March 5, 2003. He argued that his promotion should be retroactively applied from July 1997, when the post was vacant. The Patna High Court initially agreed with him, but the Supreme Court overturned this decision, siding with the Board’s administrative decisions.
The Court noted that the employee had received several promotions over a span of years and that the Board’s actions were based on administrative needs rather than malice. The Court also clarified that meeting the eligibility criteria does not guarantee immediate promotion; it simply makes an employee eligible for consideration.
This ruling underscores the importance of distinguishing between the right to be considered for a promotion and the right to the promotion itself, reinforcing the principle of equality of opportunity in employment.
