Promotions must be based on seniority subject to fitness, not solely on merit or ACR grading, as per the applicable rules.

ORDER :

Naresh Kumar Chandravanshi, J.

1. Petitioners have preferred this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking following relief :-

“10.1 That this Hon'ble Court may please to call for the entire records pertaining to the case in the interest of justice.

10.2 That, on above facts and circumstances, all proceedings, findings. recommendations of Respondent no. 3, assessment recorded on 13/03/2020 in Annexure P-1 by Respondent no.3 may kindly be quashed in the interest of justice.

10.3 That the impugned order dated 18/03/2020 Annexure P-2 may kindly be quashed directing the respondents 1 to 3 to give promotion to the petitioners on post of Lab Assistant Class III declaring them fit to be promoted for Lab Assistant Class III with cost of litigation, in the interest of justice. 10.4 That any other relief which the Hon'ble Court thinks just and proper may also kindly be allowed in favour of petitioners in the interest of justice.

By an amendment application, petitioners further sought following reliefs :-

10.5 That, this Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to pass appropriate order(s), direction(s) quashing the order dated 11.03.2024 and direct the Respondent State to grant seniority to the Petitioners prior to the date of promotion of Respondent No. 4 to13.

10.6 That, this Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to direct the Respondent State to act upon the recommendation made by the three members committee vide its report dated 13/01/2022.”

2. Brief facts of the case, as projected in the petition, are that, the Petitioners were appointed on the post of Lab Attendant in the respondent department. They were placed above private Respondents No. 4 to 13. In the year 2020, the Respondent authorities convened Departmental Promotion Committee (henceforth, referred to as ‘DPC’) meeting for consideration of suitability of candidates for promotion from the post of Lab Attendant (Class IV post) to the post of Lab Assistant, which is a Class III post as per Rule 4(1) of the Chhattisgarh Public Services (Promotion) Rules, 2003 (henceforth, referred to as Promotion Rules, 2003). Respondent authorities fixed the criteria of awarding marks based on the ACR grading of each employee for the past 5 years and thus declared petitioners not suitable for promotion by assessing the ACR grading and granted promotion to private Respondent No. 4 to 13 who were junior to the Petitioners merely because the ACR grading of said private respondents were better than petitioners. Hence, this writ petition has been filed. After filing of the writ petition, the petitioners filed an application for amendment in the writ petition to bring on record the facts that, the respondent/State constituted a three members committee for examining the process of promotion from the post of Lab Attendant (Class-IV) to the post of Lab Assistant (Class III). The said three members committee, vide its report (Annexure P-7) dated 11-1-2022, after having examined the whole process of promotion adopted by the respondent/State, came to the conclusion that the promotion process adopted on 13-3-2020 was not in accordance with ^ofj"Brk&lg&mi;qDrk*, there is no mention in Rule 17 of the Chhattisgarh State Forensic Science Laboratory (Non-Gazetted) Service Recruitment Rules, 2007 about giving promotion on the basis of marks of Confidential Report, and the Committee recommended for reconsideration of the promotion given on 13-3-2020 from the post of Lab Attendant (IV Class) to Lab Assistant (III Class) and Lab Assistant (III Class) to Lab Technician (III Class). Thereafter, vide Annexure P-7 dated 11-3-2024, the Respondent authorities have given promotion to the Petitioners from 11/03/2024 onwards and thus, the petitioners continued to re