Promotion cannot be claimed as a matter of right when a criminal case is pending against an employee, despite the right to be considered for promotion.

ORDER :

The present Writ Petition came to be filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following relief:-

“…. to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondent authorities in not considering the candidature of the petitioner to his further promotional post as Assistant Divisional Engineer under the guise of pending C.C.No.6 of 2010 on the file of Special Judge for ACB Cases at Vijayawada, and even the Departmental enquiry is not yet initiated as similarly situated persons like the petitioner even though criminal cases are pending or departmental proceedings are concluded are promoted to their respective promotional post, even though the punishment awarded as illegal, arbitrary, intentional, deliberate, against law, colourable exercise of powers and violative of principles of natural justice and consequently, direct the respondent authorities to consider the candidate of the petitioner to the next promotional post as Assistant Divisional Engineer and pass.…..”

2) The case of the petitioner is that he joined as Assistant Engineer in the A.P. State Electricity Board on 03.11.1998 and subsequently he was absorbed in A.P. Transmission Corporation Limited, respondent No.1 herein. Though he has been discharging his duties to the utmost satisfaction of the respondents, he was trapped by Anti Corruption Bureau (for short “ACB”) on 23.01.2008 and suspended from service with effect from 29.01.2008. However, after completion of enquiry on 07.06.2010, he was reinstated into service, but still the ACB case in C.C.No.6 of 2010 is pending against him on the file of Special Judge for ACB Cases at Vijayawada. Right from the date of reinstatement, he has been working as Assistant Engineer and as per the revised seniority list prepared by the respondents, his seniority is at Serial No.96 as on 03.12.2009 for promotion to the next post of Assistant Divisional Engineer. Though he is at serial No.96, his juniors, up to serial No.233, are promoted to the post of Assistant Divisional Engineer, denying promotion to the petitioner on the ground that an ACB case is pending against him.

3) The grievance of the petitioner is that none of the G.Os or Rules in force debar the employee for further promotion under the guise of pending ACB case. Earlier he filed W.P.No.9494 of 2012 for considering his candidature for promotion, however, the said writ petition was dismissed as withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh writ petition as the writ petition became infructuous as the promotions for the year 2012 were already completed. Now, the respondent authorities are finalizing the list for further promotions as there are clear vacancies to the post of Assistant Divisional Engineer in the respondent Corporation. In similar cases, though ACB cases are pending against different persons, as per the orders of the Court, their candidature was considered and promoted for further posts. The grievance of the petitioner is that though, the petitioner is entitled for further promotion on the similar lines, the respondent authorities did not consider his candidature for promotion on the ground that ACB case is pending. The respondent authorities willfully and intentionally ignored the fact that no departmental enquiry is pending against him. As no departmental enquiry is pending against him, the respondent authorities are bound to consider his candidature for promotion to the post of Assistant Divisional Engineer. Challengin