In a recent judgment by the Delhi High Court, a decision was made regarding the promotion downgrading issue of the applicant in the DPC meeting. The respondent’s promotion to the post of Chief Commissioner of Income Tax for the vacancy year 2011-12 was initially not recommended, leading to the filing of the original application. The court’s ruling has significant implications for the reconsideration of the promotion case. Follow for more details.
Facts
- The Original Application was filed by the respondent/applicant.
- The minutes of the DPC dated 18.02.2014 were set aside.
- The respondent was not recommended for promotion to the post of Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT) for the vacancy year 2011-12 initially.
- The respondent was being considered for promotion based on her two ACRs for the years marked as ‘fit’.
- The respondent was promoted on a notional basis but retired from service by that date.
Analysis
- The DPC meeting on 18.02.2011 downgraded the applicant’s ACRs for the years 2007-08 and 2008-09 from ‘very good’ to ‘good’.
- No reasons were provided for this downgrading decision in the DPC meeting minutes.
- The Tribunal found that the decision to downgrade the ACRs lacked justification.
- The importance of ACRs from 2007-08 and 2008-09 for the promotion vacancy was noted.
- A new DPC is directed to be convened to reconsider the applicant’s promotion case to the post.
- The DPC must have objective criteria for altering gradings recorded by competent authority
- Decisions of the DPC should be reflected in meeting minutes
- DPC’s decision to change ‘very good’ to ‘good’ without reason is impermissible
- No satisfactory explanation for delay in approaching the court resulted in being barred by gross delay
Decision
- The writ petition is liable to be dismissed on merits.
- The court refrains from commenting further on the delay in filing the writ petition.
- Petitioners are granted further eight weeks’ time.
Case Title: UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Vs. SMT REKHA VISHNOI (2024:DHC:3923-DB)
Case Number: W.P.(C)-13310/2022
