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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday held that employees do not acquire any vested right to be considered for promotion in accordance with the repealed rules in view of the policy decision taken by the government. The top court set aside the Telangana High Court's decision to direct Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. to consider the cases of their employees for promotion to the post Rajbhasha Adhikari on the basis of rules that existed immediately prior to 2005 rules, which had mandated a test.

 

A bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said that there is no rule of universal application that vacancies must be necessarily filled on the basis of the law which existed on the date when they arose. The government is entitled to take a conscious policy decision not to fill up the vacancies arising prior to the amendment of the rules, said the bench. There is no obligation for the government to make appointments as per the old rules in the event of restructuring, it said. The only requirement is that the policy decisions of the government must be fair and reasonable and must be justified on the touchstone of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, it added.

 

The case has its genesis from the Department of Telecommunications constituting a separate wing for promotion of Hindi language and creating posts of Hindi Translator Grade I, II and III. Administrative orders were issued from time to time, stipulating the guidelines for promotion to the next higher post. However, G.N. Mani Ravinder and other employees of BSNL could not be afforded the benefit of promotion under the said administrative orders and, in the meanwhile, the telecommunication department framed statutory rules, namely Assistant Director (Official Language) Recruitment Rules, 2002. Herein also, the employees were not promoted under these rules. As a matter of fact, the 2002 Rules were never brought into operation.

 

Thereafter, a new set of statutory rules in 2005 were enacted which renamed the post to Rajbhasha Adhikari and prescribed a written test for evaluating eligibility for promotion, with a further condition that if adequate number of candidates are not available for promotion, the corresponding vacancies shall be made available for direct recruitment. The employees sought to be promoted on the basis of 2002 Rules. However, the telecommunication department said that the employees have no right to be promoted under the earlier set of rules, which were never brought into force, and that they have to clear the examination for being promoted to the next higher post of Rajbhasha Adhikari.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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