1 2025:CGHC:50558 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WPS No. 11544 of 2025 1. Om Prakash Dewangan S/o Dawram Dewangan Aged About 37 Years Occupation Service Posted As Sub Inspector (Radio) At 7th Battalion C.A.F. Bhilai Presently Working At Radio Training Centre, Bhilai District Durg, C.G. 2. Dharmesh Kumar Sahu S/o Bisahat Ram Sahu Aged About 35 Years Occupation Service Posted And Working As Sub Inspector (Radio), State Cyber Cell, Police Headquarters, Raipur, District Raipur, C.G. 3. Aparajita Singh Rana D/o Rajendra Kumar Singh Rana Aged About 31 Years Occupation Service Posted And Working As Sub Inspector (Radio), State Cyber Cell, Police Headquarters, Raipur, District Raipur, C.G. 4. Gaurav Shukla S/o Ram Chandra Shukla Aged About 33 Years Occupation Service Posted And Working As Sub Inspector (Radio), Special Branch, A.T.S., Raipur, District Raipur, C.G. ... Petitioner(s) versus 1. State Of Chhattisgarh Through Secretary, Department Of Home Affairs, Mahanadi Bhawan, Mantralaya Atal Nagar, Nawa Raipur, District Raipur, C.G. 2. Director General Of Police Police Head Quarters, Atal Nagar, Nawa Raipur, District Raipur, C.G. 3. Additional Director General Of Police (Telecommunication) Raipur, District Raipur, C.G. ... Respondent(s) For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Sourabh Sahu, Advocate For State : Mr. Khulesh Sahu, Panel Lawyer MANISH YADAV Digitally signed by MANISH YADAV Date: 2025.11.13 18:47:18 +0530 2 Hon'ble Shri Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas Order on Board 10.10.2025 1. The petitioners who are working as Sub-Inspector (Radio) in the Police Department have filed this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India claiming promotion on the post of Inspector (Radio). 2. The name of the petitioners, date of joining of the petitioners in the service and date of appointment in the cadre are extracted below as under: Name of the petitioner Date of joining in the service Date of appointment in the cadre Om Prakash Dewangan 12.11.2017 30.10.2017 Dharmesh Kumar Sahu 13.11.2017 30.10.2017 Aparajita Singh Rana 04.11.2017 30.10.2017 Gaurav Shukla 06.11.2017 30.10.2017 3. Learned counsel for the petitioners would submit that as per Rule 6(2) of Chhattisgarh Public Service (Promotion) Rules, 2003 (in short “Rules of 2003”), the petitioners are fulfilling the 8 years of qualifying service still the respondents have not considered the case of the petitioners for promotion from the post of Sub- Inspector (Radio) to Inspector (Radio). 4. Learned State counsel opposing the submission would submit that the petitioners have not fulfilled the qualifying service of 8 years as per the recruitment rules known as Chhattisgarh Police Executive 3 (Non-Gazette) Service Recruitment Rules, 2021 (in short “Rules of 2021”). He would further submit that as per Rule 15 of the Rules of 2021 which provides for appointment by promotion. Rule 15 of the Rules of 2021 reads as under: “15. Appointment by Promotion.- (1) There shall be constituted a committee consisting of the members mentioned in Scheduled-IV for making a preliminary selection for promotion of eligible candidates. However, if there is no member representing Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes among the members nominated for the Departmental Promotion Committee other than the presiding officer, than another officer of an equivalent rank shall be included in the DPC and the strength of DPC shall be deemed to be extended to the required limit. Also, it is mandatory to keep a woman member in the committee in compliance with the Circular No. F 13-8/2019 /आ../1-3, Nava Raipur Atal Nagar, dated 27.08.2020 issued by the General Administration Department of the Government. (2) The Committee shall meet at interval ordinarily not exceeding one year. (3) The procedure for making promotion in the reserved vacancies shall be made in accordance with the instructions issued by the General Administration Department of the Government, from time to time.” 5. The Rule 16 of the Rules of 2021 provides the condition of eligibility for promotion. According to this Rule, the Committee shall consider the case of all the persons who on the first day of January of that year had completed such number of years of service (whether officiating or substantive) in the posts, from which promotion is to be made or in any other post or posts declared equivalent thereto by the Government as specified in the column (4) of Schedule-IV and are within the zone of consideration in accordance with the provisions of sub-rule (2). Rule 16 of the Rules of 2021 reads as under: 4 “16. Conditions of eligibility for promotion:- (1) Subject to the provisions of sub-rule (2), the Committee shall consider the cases of all persons who on first day of January of that year had completed such number of years of service (whether officiating or substantive) in the posts, from which promotion is to be made or in any other post or posts declared equivalent thereto by the Government as specified in column (4) of Schedule-IV and are within the zone of consideration in accordance with the provisions of sub-rule (2). (2) There shall be no zone of consideration, in those cases where the promotion is to be made on the basis of seniority- cum-merit subject to fitness or on the basis of seniority excluding the persons found unfit. Only such number of cases of Government Servants shall be taken in to consideration as are sufficient to fill-up the vacancies occurring in each category during the next one year.” 6. From bare perusal of the Rule 15 and Schedule-IV provides for minimum qualifying service for promotion from the post of Sub- Inspector (Radio) to Inspector (Radio) is 8 years. 7. The learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that according to the Promotion Rules, 2003 explanation, the petitioners have completed 8 years of qualifying service, therefore, they are eligible to be considered for promotion. 8. Whereas the State counsel opposing the submission and would submit that they have not fulfilled 8 years of qualifying service, therefore, they are not entitled to be considered for promotion at this juncture. To decide this controversy, it is expedient for this Court to extract Rule 6 of the Rules of 2003 which reads as under: “6. Promotion on the basis of seniority subject to fitness.- (1) In such cases where the promotion is to be made on the basis of seniority subject to fitness, there shall be no zone of consideration for all categories. (2) The names of only such public servant shall be 5 considered for promotion, who have completed the prescribed qualifying service in their feeder cadre/part of the service/pay scale of post according to the Recruitment Rules. It is, however, not necessary to consider all the names of public servants who have completed the prescribed minimum length of service but only such number of cases of public servant shall be considered according to the seniority, which shall be sufficient to cover the number of existing and anticipated vacancies due to retirement during the year under each category. In addition to this, with a view of inclusion, in the select list, the names of two public servants or 25 percent of the number of the public servants included in select list whichever is more, the names of the required number of the public servants shall be considered for each category to fill up the unforeseen vacancies occurring during the course of the aforesaid period. Explanation. - Manner of computation for eligibility for promotion. - Period of qualifying service on 1st January of the relevant year in which Departmental Promotion Committee is convened shall be counted from the calender year in which the public servant has joined the feeding cadre/part of the service/pay scale of the post and not from the date of joining of the cadre/part of the service/pay scale of post. (3) The number of vacancies for promotion during the course of the year, i.e., from 1st January to 31st December shall be worked out after taking into account the existing and anticipated vacancies on account of retirement, and promotions to higher cadres/part of the service/higher pay scale of posts. Vacancies arising out of deputation for periods exceeding one year shall also be taken into account. The number of vacancies to be reserved for public servants belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be worked out on the basis of the roster which is required to be maintained in accordance with the provisions of Rule 9 of these Rules. (4) The meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee shall be held every year. It shall consider the suitability of the public servants for promotion separately with reference to the vacancies of each year starting with the earliest year onwards. The Departmental Promotion Committee shall consider the suitability of the public servants for promotion to fill up the unfilled vacancies of the earlier year or years separately and prepare the select list for the relevant year accordingly. Thereafter, the Departmental Promotion Committee shall consider the suitability of the public servants for promotion of fill up the existing and anticipated vacancies of the current year. (5) The Departmental Promotion Committee shall assess 6 the suitability of the public servants for promotion on the basis of their service record and with particular reference to the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) for 5 preceding years. However, in cases where the required qualifying service is more than 5 years, the Departmental Promotion Committee shall see the record with particular reference to the ACRs for the years equal to the required qualifying service. (6) When one or more ACRs are not available for any reasons for the relevant period, the Departmental Promotion Committee shall consider the ACRs of the years preceding the period in question. (7) For filling up the posts by this method, the Departmental Promotion Committee shall consider the case of each public servant separately on the basis of their own merit, that is to say, that there shall be no need to make a comparative assessment of the merits of public servant. The Departmental Promotion Committee shall consider the records of each public servant separately and shall categorise them as 'fit' or 'not fit'. (8) Separate select lists shall be prepared for the public servants of unreserved category, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category in which the names of such number of public servants belonging to unreserved category, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category shall be included which is equal to the number of posts reserved for each of these categories. In addition to this, names of two public servants or twenty five percent of the number of posts servants included in the select list whichever is more, will also be included in the select list of each category as prescribed in sub-rule (2). (9) The names of public servants included in each list shall be arranged in the same order of their seniority, as they existed in the cadre/part of the service/pay scale of post from which promotion is to be made. (10) The promotion of public servants shall be made from these separate select lists according to their seniority in the feeder cadre/part of the service/pay scale of posts and accordingly to the prescribed order shown in the roster. (11) In order to determine the inter-se seniority of the public servants belonging to the three categories in the cadre/part of the service/pay scale of post to which promotion is to be made, a combined select list of the above three categories of public servants shall be prepared in the same order in which their names appear in the seniority list of the cadre/part of the service/pay scale of post from which the promotion is being made. (12) The names of public servants promoted on the basis of above combined select list shall be placed enblock 7 below the name of last public servant promoted on the basis of the immediately preceding year's combined select list. (13) The reserved posts which remain unfilled due to non- availability of suitable public servants of the category for which the post is reserved despite consideration of the names of all public servants eligible for consideration as per the Recruitment Rules shall be carried forward, that is to say, shall be kept vacant until the suitable public servants belonging to that reserved category is available. In no circumstances any vacancy of reserved category shall be filled-up by promotion from the public servant belonging to any other category. (14) Wherever the reserved vacancies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in all cases of promotion have remained unfilled in the earlier year or years, the backlog and/or carried forward vacancies would be treated as a separate and distinct group and will not be considered together with the reserved vacancies of the year in which they are being filled up for determining the ceiling of fifty percent reservation on total number of vacancies of that year. In other words, the ceiling of fifty percent on filling up of reserved vacancies would apply only on the reserved vacancies which arise in the current year and the backlog/carried forward reserved vacancies for Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes of earlier year or years would be treated as a separate and distinct group and would not be subject to ceiling of fifty percent : Provided that the Appointing Authority shall convene a special meeting of Departmental Promotion Committee within six months to fill up backlog vacancies and if such vacancies still remain unfilled, they shall not be de- reserved in any manner for filling up by the public servants not belonging to the category for whom the post or posts are reserved. (15) When a public servant, whose name is included in the select list, wants to refuse promotion, he may make a written request that he may not be promoted. The Appointing Authority taking relevant aspects into consideration shall consider such request. If the reasons adduced for refusal of promotion are acceptable to the Appointing Authority, the next public servant in the select list may be promoted. However, since it may not be administratively possible or desirable to offer appointment to the public servants who initially refused promotion, on every occasion on which a vacancy arises during the period of validity of the panel, no fresh offer of appointment on promotion shall be made in such cases for a period of one year from the date of refusal of first promotion or till a next vacancy arises, whichever is latter. On the eventual 8 promotion to the higher cadre/part of the service/pay scale of post, such public servant shall lose seniority vis-a-vis his juniors promoted in the preceding year to the higher cadre/part of the service/pay scale of post. In cases where the reasons adduced by the public servant for his refusal for promotion are not acceptable to the Appointing Authority then he shall enforce the promotion, on the public servant and in case the public servant still refuses to be promoted, then even disciplinary action may be taken against him for refusing to obey his order. [(16) Notwithstanding anything contained in Rule 6, if no public servant of the category for which post or point in the roster is reserved, is available and according to the seniority and criteria adopted for promotion of a public servant of unreserved/general category or a public servant of other reserved category is available and fit for promotion, and no public servant from the category' for which the post or point in the roster is reserved, is going to be available in the feeder cadre/post before the date of retirement of such public servant of unreserved/general or of other reserved category who is available and fit for promotion, such available public servant shall be promoted.]” 9. Learned counsel for the petitioners would further submit that from perusal of the Rule 6(2) of the Rules of 2003 also that the names of only such public servants should be considered for promotion who have completed the prescribed qualifying service in the cadre according to the recruitment rules and explanation of the said rules provides for manner of qualifying the eligibility for the promotion, period of qualifying service on the first January of the relevant year in which DPC convened shall be counted from the relevant year in which the public servant has joined the cadre post for part of service is pay scale of the post and not from the date of joining of the cadre part of the service pay scale of the post. Thus, he would submit that as per explanation he has completed 8 years on 1st January, 2025 in which year DPC has to be convened. Thus, he would submit that a direction can be issued to the 9 respondents. 10. The submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioners that for completion of eligibility for promotion period of qualifying service as on 1st January of the relevant year in which Department Promotion Committee convened, shall be counted, it means the candidate should have completed the qualifying service of 8 years on 1st January then only he will eligible to consider for promotion. In the present case the petitioners’ 8 years service will be completed on October, 2025 only, therefore, their case can be considered only from 1st January, 2026 as they are fulfilling the eligibility criteria of 8 years in the month of October, 2025. 11. The submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioners that a direction be issued to the respondents to convene the DPC deserves to be rejected as the language of the rules is very much clear and there is no ambiguity in the rules which provides qualifying service of 8 years which will start only when the candidates takes birth in the cadre. The petitioners are admittedly taken birth in the cadre on 30.10.2017, therefore, in any case their case can only be considered after 1st January, 2026. Therefore, I am of the view that at this juncture no direction can be issued to the respondent authorities in this regard. 12. Accordingly, the writ petition sans merit is liable to be dismissed and accordingly it is dismissed. Sd/- (Narendra Kumar Vyas) Judge Manish