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2. The first respondent-Institute is an institution for Higher Education and a deemed University. The Institute introduced the policy of reservation of posts for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with effect from 1-4-1971.

3. The Institute introduced a Career Advancement Scheme for its employees OCA Scheme' for short), with effect from 1-7-1978 on the basis of periodic evaluation of their performance. It is stated that in regard to each cadre, there are several scales of pay which can be attained by every employee provided he is found fit for the higher pay scale on periodic evaluation of efficiency and performance. The period for eligibility for evaluation for the next higher grade was originally five years for all employees including those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Re: Point No. (i).--

14. The nature and effect of evaluation Scheme is explained by the Institute in its additional objections dated 12-8-1998. It is extracted below:

"In the evaluation Scheme, each and every staff member, after completion of the stipulated years of service required for evaluation, are considered eligible for evaluation for possible placement in the next higher grade, identified of each category of posts. The placement in the higher grade is based on individual performance and not on relative performance. The person so placed in the higher grade carries with him the entry level post until he retires/resigns or gets promoted to a higher post against a vacancy and whereupon, the entry level post with the initial scale of pay only is available for filling. Hence, the placement in the higher grade is personal to the individual and is not subject to availability of any vacancy at the higher level. Whereas reservation orders apply whenever a vacancy is filled either by direct recruitment or by promotion and the number of persons to be promoted is restricted to the number of vacancies, based on relative performance. Whereas evaluation is neither against any vacancy nor based on relative performance, but all those who have completed the stipulated period of service would be considered eligible for evaluation and if all are successful in the evaluation, all would be placed in the next higher grade as personal to the individual to each one of them. Thus under the evaluation Scheme, no one who has completed the stipulated years of service required for evaluation, is deprived of the opportunity for evaluation. Since the evaluation Scheme provides only a change in pay scale as personal to the staff member, reservation orders do not apply in such cases and hence no rosters are maintained".

(emphasis supplied) 21.1 In Patna University and Ors. v. Awadh Kishore Pd. Yadav and Ors., the Supreme Court held any Scheme which provides that on the completion of a particular period of service, the employee will move to a higher scale is not comparable to a promotion from a lower post to a higher post.

22. We have already noticed that the SC/ST Welfare Association had all along contended that Career Advancement Scheme did not involve any promotion but only involved grant of monetary benefit. The Institute has also all along stated that Career Advancement Scheme involves only extension of monetary benefit and not promotion. The Institute has explained (see para 14 supra) that grant of higher grade under the CA Scheme does not result in the employee getting promoted to a higher post and that placing of an employee in a higher grade is personal to the employee and is not subject to availability of any vacancy in the higher cadre; that an employee continues in the same post and in the same cadre even after grant of higher grade under the CA Scheme; that promotion would arise only when a vacancy in a higher cadre is filled; that the number of persons promoted to a higher post, is restricted to the number of vacancies and is based on relative performance, whereas grant of a higher pay scale by evaluation under the CA Scheme is neither against any vacancy nor based on relative performance, but with reference to the individual performance during a stipulated period, and all who are successful in the evaluation are placed in the higher grade as personal to that employee without reference to the number of posts. Grant of higher grade on evaluation under the CA Scheme therefore does not involve promotion to a (higher) post.

24. In this context, we may also refer to a decision of the Full Bench of the Kerala High Court in N.G. Prabhu v. Chief Justice, (1973)2 SLR 251 (Ker.) where promotion was distinguished from upgradation:

"Promotion is, of course, appointment, to a different post carrying a higher scale of pay in the service. If, to better the conditions of service of the incumbents in posts in the same category the scale of pay of all the posts in the category is raised, the incumbents would naturally get the higher scale of pay. But, in such a case it may not be proper to characterise the event as a promotion to higher posts though a benefit of a higher scale of pay is obtained by all concerned. In other words, if the upgradation relates to all the posts in a category naturally, there is no sense in calling it a promotion of all the persons in that category. That is because there is no question of appointment from one post to another. Parties continued to hold same posts but get a higher scale of pay, It may be that it is not all the posts in a particular category that are so upgraded, but only a part of it. Normally, the benefit of such upgradation would go to the seniors in the category. They would automatically get a higher scale of pay, That is because though their posts continue in the same category a higher scale of pay is fixed for those posts. It is appropriate then to say that the seniors have been nominated to the Higher Grade which has been so created by upgradation, This phenomena does not differ from the case where all the posts are upgraded and, it appears to us that those who get the higher grade cannot be said to have been 'promoted' because here again there is no question of appointment from one post to another., They continue to hold the same post, but because of seniority in the same post they are given a higher scale of pay".