CUTTACK: In a significant judgement, the Orissa High Court has quashed promotion-related clarifications issued by the ST & SC Development department that allowed reserved category candidates to be promoted against unreserved vacancies without restriction, holding them to be not sustainable in the eye of law.
Striking down the clarifications dated May 6, 2024 and February 27, 2025, the court also invalidated all actions taken on their basis, including the cancellation of promotions of eligible officers.
The single judge bench of Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy delivered the ruling while disposing of a batch of 64 writ petitions through a common order that was uploaded on Thursday.
The petitions were filed by assistant engineers (civil) who were found eligible and recommended for promotion to the post of assistant executive engineer (civil) in the departmental promotion committee (DPC) held on September 4, 2024. Their promotions were later cancelled through a notification dated March 4, 2025, citing the impugned government clarifications which had held that that the reserved category candidates are eligible to be promoted against the vacancies earmarked for unreserved candidates without any restriction.
The court noted that eligibility of an employee to get the benefit of promotion in any cadre is provided under the OCS (Criteria for Promotion) Rules, 1992. Referring to the Amendment Rules, 2022, Justice Satapathy emphasised that Rule-3-A clearly provides that SC and ST candidates appointed on their own merit either by direct recruitment or by promotion and placed above the unreserved candidates in the merit list shall be considered and adjusted against the unreserved vacancy.
Criticising the ST & SC Development department, the court held that it had no authority to issue such clarifications. It observed that it is only the GA and PG department who is competent to issue any clarification while interpreting any of the Rules so contained under the 1992 Rules. The judgment further recorded that the impugned clarifications were issued “without prior concurrence/approval of the Governor of Odisha”.
The court also found fault with the Law department, stating that it was also not competent to give its view on February 27, 2024, basing on which such a clarification was issued.
Justice Satapathy held that since no quantifiable data has yet been collected by the state with regard to inadequacy of representation of reserve category candidate in any cadre of posts. no such clarification could have been issued.