I feel there is no benefit in conducting group discussion for promotion of any officer in any scale and neither is there any need for having a separate Merit Channel which gives scope of manipulation. During five to thirty years of service, top executive of banks get hundreds of opportunities like meeting, branch visit, correspondence, audit reports which give ample opportunity to judge the quality of an officer who is candidate for elevation. If the higher executives are not able and do not possess enough capability to assess and ascertain the level of proficiency, efficiency, communication skill, , behavior with customers, work performance, style of working, relationship, innovative and creativeness , level of initiative, loyalty to bank, level of corruption, honesty and integrity etc of an officer in span of five to thirty years , how can interview panel members judge all these in a minute or two of time available in Interview with candidate eligible for promotion?
Interview in my view is undoubtedly a tool given to management to reject good officers and whimsically select bad officers for higher assignment on some plea or the other. Same logic applies for all organization and government offices. This is why most of officers promoted to executive cadres are subsequently found to be guilty of various malpractices and later given non-sensitive assignment. It is different that such evil worker or officers get patronage and protection from his mentors sitting at top echelons and due to which they are never punished but always promoted to higher level.
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https://danendrajain.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-promotion-policy-framework-good.html