HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH AT JAMMU Reserved on: 27.11.2025 Pronounced on 11.12.2025 Uploaded on 1.12.2025 Whether the operative part or full judgment is pronounced: Full Judgment CJ Court:

LPA No. 98/2022 CM No. 5712/2022 Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture …Petitioner(s)/Appellant(s)

Sciences and Technology and another.

Through: Mr. D. C. Raina, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Anuj Dewan Raina, Advocate Mr. Mazher Ali Khan, Advocate &

Mr. Junaid, Advocate v/s …. Respondent(s)

Dr. Robinder Nath Koul and others Through: Mr. P. N. Raina, Sr. Advocate with Mr. J. A. Hamal, Advocate and Mr. Ankit Dogra, Advocate CORAM: HON’BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJNESH OSWAL, JUDGE.

JUDGMENT

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‘Oswal J’

1. The respondents were employees of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), Kashmir. Owing to the eruption of militancy, the respondents migrated to the other SKUAST campus in Jammu. Vide Government order No. 605-GAD of 1991, Government employees, who migrated from the Valley to Jammu because of the turmoil, were termed as "migrant employees”, to be paid migrant salary. Subsequently, in terms of another Government order dated 29.04.1992, migrant employees were directed to be considered for promotion, and the effect of the promotion was to be given to such employees only upon their joining the promoted post.

2. SKUAST, Kashmir, through Notification No. 01/2002, amended Schedule II to Chapter 2 (Career Advancement Scheme for Teachers), making its provisions effective prospectively. However, by a subsequent order dated 19.01.2007, the effective date of the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS)

for Teachers was retrospectively fixed as 27.07.1998.

3. The respondents asserted that they had completed the requisite years of service as “Assistant Professor/Junior Scientist” and were eligible for promotion under the CAS to the post of “Associate Professor/Senior Scientist”. They pressed the appellants for immediate consideration of their cases, citing that the benefits had already been extended to similarly situated and even junior colleagues. Despite receiving assurances, the appellants took no concrete steps to address the respondents' grievance.

4. In the year 2009, the appellants, for the first time, asked the respondents to rejoin in the Kashmir Valley so that their cases for promotion could be considered, and the respondents accordingly did so. The respondents were considered by the Selection Committee for promotion, and the Board of Management (BOM) of the University thereafter considered and approved the recommendations of the Selection Committee for the promotion of “Assistant Professors/Junior Scientists” as “Associate Professors/Senior Scientists” under the Career Advancement Scheme, as is evident from Item Nos. 49(15) and 49(16) of the BOM minutes of the meeting. However, the Screening Committee, which the respondents allege was constituted contrary to the rules and all Government orders, recommended that the promotion orders for the respondents as “Associate Professors/Senior Scientists” would take effect only from the date of the respondents' joining SKUAST Kashmir in 2009. Crucially, neither the Selection Committee nor the BOM had put any such condition while recommending and approving the promotions cases of the respondents, as the case may be.

5. Following the recommendations of the Screening Committee, the appellants issued promotion orders of the respondents vide orders dated 28.10.2010 under the Career Advancement Scheme in their respective disciplines. These orders stipulated that the promotions would take effect from the date the respondents rejoined SKUAST, Kashmir, in 2009.

6. Upon receiving their promotion orders, which were conditional, as the promotion taking effect only from the date they rejoined the Valley in 2009, the respondents raised objections by citing various precedents. Specifically, they highlighted the case of Dr. Wali Ullah, a similarly situated migrant from the Valley