Promotion necessary ingredient of service: Punjab and Haryana High Court

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 24

Promotion is a necessary ingredient of any service, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled. It has made it clear that prospects of promotion were a motivating force for an employee and capable of bringing about greater efficiency in his functioning.

Justice Arun Monga of the HC has also ruled that an employee was entitled to know about his future prospects while accepting a job offer. “An employee must know what is in store for him in future if he performs. Accordingly, he can then take a conscious call to accept or not the employment terms offered to him at the time of joining itself,” Justice Monga asserted.

In his detailed order, Justice Monga added that the prospects of promotion gave an employee a sense of security and boosted his morale, apart from inculcating the motivation of “inter se outperformance”.

“It promotes efficiency, healthy competition and provides wind beneath the wings of a outperformer to fly higher in pursuit of his laurels,” Justice Monga added. The assertion by Justice Monga came in a case revolving around the issue of framing a promotion policy.

Justice Monga has already observed in the matter that it was but natural that denial of promotion to the petitioners in the absence of promotion avenues would cause heartburn, especially when others were being given the benefit.

Justice Monga was hearing an application filed in the case of Mili Bansal nee Gupta and other petitioners against Panjab University and other respondents for framing a policy for the faculty of Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital.

The Bench had in May last year directed Panjab University to take up the matter with the authorities concerned before taking a final decision on framing the policy. For the purpose, the Bench had set a four-month deadline from the date of receiving a certified copy of the order.

In its application, the university had subsequently sought extension to implement the High Court’s May 2019 orders. Taking up the matter, Justice Monga asserted that the university was under a moral and legal obligation to finalise the existing promotion policy.