Worker can't seek promotion after keeping quiet for decade: SC

An employee cannot remain silent for a decade and then cry foul over denial of promotion, the Supreme Court has said while advising courts to reject delayed claims for equity in service matters. The apex court said that granting relief in such cases would seriously jeopardise the chances and seniority of other employees who are in the reckoning in the normal course. "The appellants slept over their rights which led to considerable delay of 11-12 years on the part of the appellants to give representation for promotion to the grade of UDC. "A delay of 11-12 year cannot be overlooked when an applicant before the court seeks equity and specially in the case of service matters, as in the said case it jeopardises the existing positions of a very large number of members of that service," a bench of Justices R V Raveendra and Mukundakam Sharma observed. The bench passed the ruling while dismissing the appeal filed by Rajinder Pal Singh Lamba against the orders of a division bench of the Delhi High Court which had set aside a single judge's order of granting promotion with retrospective effect to the appellant and another person with effect from 1st January, 1976. The single judge had granted the promotion with retrospective effect and other benefits despite the fact that the appellant had made a representation to the authorities for promotion about 12 years after the said promotion arose in the department.

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