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The Hon’ble Bench of the Apex Court of India comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Hemant Gupta found the order of the High Court to be erratic. The Manipur High Court had ordered that the promotion is a vested right of Havildars to the post of Naib Subedar, and the amended laws and rules in this regard would not apply due to the existence of vacancies before such amendment.
However, the Supreme Court did not find this view correct. The Court observed that the High Court had conceived that the persons, who were recruited before the restructuring exercise and were havildars prior to the amendment, held a vested right in them for promotion to the post of Naib Subedar. In Union of India Vs Krishna Kumar, Interim post for Warrant Officer post was created, and the same invited two contentions—the vacancies that arose prior to the amendment must be filled up by the havildars eligible for the post of Naib Subedars; Promotion of Havildars as Warrant Officers contravenes Article 14 and 16 of the Indian Constitution.
The Court said that the promotion should be considered in accordance with the rules prevailing at the time of promotion. In YV Rangaiah Vs Sreenivasa Rao, the court held that the promotion or selection should be completed within a prescribed timeframe. The Apex Court also observed that there is no universal application of the rule that the vacancies should be filled only in accordance with the laws which prevailed when the vacancies arose. In HS Grewal Vs. Union of India, the court held that the creation of an intermediate post would not hamper the vested right of promotion of the eligible persons.
In view of the earlier judgements, the Supreme Court said that the High Court was incorrect in its order. Rules prior to the amendment cannot be the basis for effecting the promotion merely for the reason that the vacancies for such promotion happened to arise prior to the amendment. In addition to this, there is no vested right of promotion in Havildars to the post of Naib Subedars. Hence, only the rules prevailing at the time of effecting the promotion of eligible persons are to be taken into account.
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