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2019 (3) TMI 1974 - Tri - Indian LawsSupersession to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from Orissa administrative Service (OAS) - Legality of selection process for promotion to the Indian Administrative Service for the year 2015 and 2016 - validity of notification regarding promotion of the officers of State Civil Service of Odisha to the IAS for the vacancies of the year 2015 - Violation of IAS (Recruitment) Rules, 1954 read with the IAS (Appointment on Promotion) Regulations, 1955. Whether the minor penalty imposed on the applicant vide order dated 24.9.2011(Annexure-A/6 to the OA) can be considered more than once for denying promotion of the applicant to IAS, particularly since the CCRs of the applicant continue to be ‘Outstanding’ for which State Government recommended his case for years 2013 to 2017? - HELD THAT:- From the guidelines of DOPT OM dated 28.4.2014, it is stipulated that in the case of promotion of an officer on whom a penalty has been imposed in disciplinary proceedings, the DPC in assessing the suitability of an officer, will have to take into account circumstances leading to the imposition of the penalty and then decide whether in the light of general service record of the officer, he/she should be assessed to be fit or unfit for promotion. Further, denial of promotion to such an officer after the penalty period is over will be violation of the Article 20 of the Constitution of India provided in sub para (i) of para 7 of the guidelines extracted above. Hence, after the period of penalty is over, it was necessary for the selection committee to have assessed the suitability of the applicant with regard to his overall service record to assess his suitability taking into account the imposition of the penalty. However, during currency of the penalty, the officer would be unfit for promotion. Comparing the guidelines of the DOPT, with the internal guidelines of the UPSC dated 14.2.2014 (Annexure-R/3/1) for promotion to IAS, it is noticed that the internal guidelines of UPSC, applied by the respondent no.2 to the case of the applicant (vide the paragraph 5.1 and 6.2 of the Reply filed by the respondent No.2) provide for classifying an officer as unfit if in any of the years in the assessment matrix, the penalty imposed has some implication, even when the date of consideration is after the expiry of the period of penalty. The case of the applicant deserves to be reconsidered in the interest of justice, since as stated in the counter filed by the respondent No.2, the applicant’s case was decided only on the basis of the fact that a penalty was imposed even though the currency of that penalty was over by the time the applicant was considered for promotion, without assessing his overall performance for the years in question as required under the DOPT guidelines - Application allowed in part.
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