Bilaspur: The High Court has given an important decision in the case related to the promotion of four police officers working on the post of Sub Inspector (Radio). The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Aggarwal clarified that the eight years of qualifying service prescribed for promotion will not be calculated from the actual joining date, but from the calendar year in which the employee has taken appointment in the feeder cadre.
The case was of a writ appeal filed by Om Prakash Dewangan, Dharmesh Kumar Sahu, Aparajita Singh Rana and Gaurav Shukla. All were appointed to the post of Sub Inspector (Radio) in the year 2017 and they joined the service in November 2017. Under the Chhattisgarh Police Executive (Non-Gazetted) Service Recruitment Rules, 2021, the qualifying service of eight years is prescribed for promotion from the post of Sub Inspector (Radio) to Inspector (Radio).
The petitioners’ argument was that as per the interpretation of Rule 6(2) of the Chhattisgarh Public Services (Promotion) Rules, 2003, the qualifying service is to be calculated from the calendar year in which the employee joins the feeder cadre. On this basis, considering 2017 as the first year, his eight years of service was completed in 2024 and he was eligible to be considered for promotion from January 1, 2025.He also said that seven posts of Inspector (Radio) were vacant and they were eligible for promotion in the seniority list. However, the single bench, while rejecting his plea in its order dated October 10, 2025, had held that based on the actual joining date, he would complete eight years of service in October 2025 and would be eligible for promotion from January 1, 2026. He appealed against this in the Division Bench. Advocate Saurabh Sahu presented his side in the appeal, while government advocate S.S. Baghel advocated.
The Division Bench, while considering the interpretation of Rule 6(2), held that the Rule clearly provides for calculation of qualifying service from the calendar year in which the employee has entered the feeder cadre. Therefore, for the appellants who joined in November 2017, 2017 will be considered as the first year, 2018 as the second and in that order, 2024 will be considered as the eighth year. Thus, on January 1, 2025, he had completed eight years of qualifying service. The High Court said that the single bench had committed a mistake by determining the eligibility on the basis of the actual joining date. When calendar year has been made the basis in the rules, it was not appropriate to postpone promotion on the basis of actual joining in November 2017.
The court also held that in view of the vacant posts and seniority of the appellants, their cases should have been placed before the Departmental Promotion Committee. The Division Bench accepted the writ appeal, canceling the order of the single bench dated 10 October 2025. The State Government and concerned authorities were directed to consider the cases of the four appellants for promotion to the post of Inspector (Radio) and consider them as having completed eight years of qualifying service by January 1, 2025. Promotion will be considered by the Departmental Promotion Committee subject to all other eligibility conditions and availability of vacancies and consequential benefits will also be given as per rules.
