Jharkhand High Court: A Single Judge Bench of Pramath Patnaik, J., dismissed a writ petition filed by the petitioner, whereby he sought directions upon the respondent to grant him promotions and benefits of Assured Career Progression as had been granted to one of his colleagues Akhouri Shrawan Prasad.
The main issue that arose before the Court was whether the respondent authorities were liable for discriminating the petitioner with his colleagues.
The Court observed that the petitioner and the employee with whom the petitioner is claiming discrimination had joined the services in the same year. The petitioner was concerned with the fact that Mr Shrawan had been granted more promotions, however from the record it was crystal clear that the petitioner was granted promotion to Selection Grade Assistant and given the post of Head Assistant before the said Mr Akhouri Shrawan Prasad and even on the date of retirement, the basic salary of the petitioner was higher than that of Mr Akhouri Shrawan Prasad. Further, it was observed that promotion cannot be claimed as a matter of right, rather only consideration for promotion to a particular post can be asserted as a right.
The Court held that the petitioner was duly considered for promotions time and again during the course of his service and he had failed to establish that the respondent authorities had ever deprived him of his right to be considered for promotion to a particular post. Resultantly, the petition was dismissed being devoid of merits.[Hira Lal Ram v. State of Jharkhand,2018 SCC OnLine Jhar 1550, order dated 05-11-2018]