Setting aside verdicts of two high courts, the Supreme Court has ordered Central Selection Board (CSB) to reexamine promotion cases of 28 grade-20 officers on basis of the criteria for fitness and make its recommendations to prime minister within 30 days.
The CSB in February, 2014 recommended promotions of a number of officers – including 45 officers of administrative services, 11 of police service and 12 of foreign service – from grade-20 to grade-21.
However, the prime minister had returned 28 of the cases – including that of 18 from administrative services, six from police service and four from foreign service – to the CSB for reconsideration.
Later, the aggrieved officers approached Lahore High Court (LHC) and Islamabad High Court (IHC), both of which gave verdicts in favour of the officers and directed the government to promote them in accordance with the CSB’s recommendations.
The Establishment Division, however, challenged the high courts’ judgments in the Supreme Court, whose three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, declared that it was not persuaded by the reasoning given by the high courts in allowing the writ petitions of the officers.
In its written order announced on Wednesday, the SC observed that the exercise of powers by the PM was neither arbitrary nor discriminatory and some material was before him, which dissuaded him from promoting respondents until further probe by the CSB.
“It does not provide… that recommendations of the board [CSB] are binding and consequently be returned by the appointing authority [PM] only when the procedure followed by the board suffers from any factual or legal flaw,” the judgment said.
“The competent authority also in its discretion may take into consideration any information while considering the recommendations of the board. This power, however, is to be exercised sparingly and… in exceptional circumstances”
The court said the prime minister had not turned down the [CSB’s] recommendations but had only returned them for further scrutiny with direction that the slots for promotion shall remain vacant till finalisation of cases by the board and that if promoted, they shall retain their original seniority.
“Having said that we are not unmindful of the prime minister’s observations regarding reputation of respondents, which, we must say have been expressed in strong and definite terms. The board while reconsidering the cases of the respondents shall remain uninfluenced by such observations and shall make its own independent assessment,” the bench noted.
The judgment said the PM had before him reports from intelligence agencies regarding the reputation of the respondents (28 officers), which persuaded him to refer their cases back to the CSB.
“This has been seriously disputed by Asma Jahangir, counsel representing the respondents. However, being a question of fact, it will not be possible for us to probe into the question as to whether the material was in fact placed before the prime minister while considering the said recommendations,” it said.
“The reports from the intelligence agencies were produced before us… We would not like to make any comment upon the material even tentatively lest it in any way influences the decision of the board during re-examination of the cases of the respondents,” said the order.
The SC ordered that the board shall reexamine the cases of the respondents on the basis of the criteria already set for determining the fitness or otherwise of the civil servants for promotion.
“Since the promotion of the respondents have been pending for the last so many years, let the board make its recommendations within a period of 30 days and the competent authority [PM] shall finalise their cases within 15 days of the submission of the recommendations,” said the 18-page judgment, authored by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 23rd, 2015.
The post Elevation to grade-21: SC reverses high courts’ verdicts on promotions appeared first on The Express Tribune.