For promotion, merit matters more than seniority: SC

NEW DELHI: Pitching strongly in favour of the meritorious, the Supreme Court has ruled that for promotional posts to be filled on "merit alone" basis, seniority of an aspirant is of no avail as the number of years of service loses its weight completely in the face of merit. This means, if two government servants holding the same post â€” one junior and the other senior â€” aspiring for promotion through the "merit only" channel to the next rank having one vacancy, then the junior could be promoted if he is found more meritorious than the senior. The ruling came in a case pertaining to the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) which was accused by one Ayodhya Prasad Mishra that though he secured more marks in the examination conducted by the departmental promotion committee and placed in the Executive Engineer-I category, he was not promoted to the post of Superintending Engineer, which went to a senior despite the latter having secured less marks and placed in the Executive Engineer-II category. Dismissing UPPCL's appeal against an Allahabad High Court order, a Bench comprising Justices C K Thakker and L S Panta said: "There is no doubt in our mind that if any executive engineer who has been placed in category-I and is available for the promotional post of superintending engineer, no executive engineer who is included in category-II can be considered for such promotion even if the latter is senior." Justice Thakker said it was well settled that Article 14 of the Constitution, which guaranteed right to equality, prohibited a person or a class of persons from being singled out from others similarly situated or circumstanced for discrimination

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