The court holds that administrative inefficiency, poor governance or inaction cannot be used to deny legitimate rights
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has ruled that promotion is a natural and integral incident of the civil service and that every eligible public official has a legitimate expectation of being considered for promotion within a reasonable time.
The court also held that administrative inefficiency, poor governance or inaction could not be used to deny legitimate service rights as it restored the promotion of a public servant from the date of the first meeting of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) held in 2012.
A three-member bench comprising Justice Ayesha A Malik, Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim accepted the civil petition of Fakhar Majeed, draftsman of the Punjab Irrigation Department, setting aside a February 16, 2024 order of the Punjab Service Court that had dismissed his appeal.
The court stated that the petitioner would be deemed to have been promoted to the post of Draftsman (BPS-14) with effect from January 21, 2012.
The verdict was written by Justice Ayesha A Malik and spans seven pages. The court converted the civil petition into an appeal and allowed it, holding that the court had failed to appreciate the unjustified deprivation of the petitioner’s promotion despite his eligibility.
Fakhar Majeed was appointed to the Punjab Irrigation Department in October 1999.
According to the record, he was assigned the duties of draftsman with current appointment from December 2008 onwards under Rule 10(b) of the Punjab Civil Servants (Appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1974.
He continued to perform the duties of the top position for several years through repeated extensions before being formally promoted in May 2019 following a DPC meeting held on 4 May 2019.
The petitioner maintained that he had been eligible for regular promotion as early as 2010, when vacancies were available, and that his case should have been considered in the first DPC convened in January 2012. However, his case was not presented before the committee and no explanation was provided for this omission.
The Punjab government defended the court’s decision based on section 8(3) of the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974, arguing that promotion could only be granted with immediate effect and not from the date of availability of a vacancy.
The deputy attorney general argued that the promotion was not a vested right and that retroactive promotion was prohibited by law.
Rejecting this argument, the Supreme Court observed that the facts of the case did not fall within the purview of Section 8(3) as the petitioner had been continuously holding the office with present charge since 2008.
