Ten years service as head constable, a must for promotion as SI: Madras HC

If the police personnel were aggrieved by such a stipulation, they ought to have challenged the GOs, the court said

Ten years of service as head constable is mandatory for promotion as a sub-inspector (SI) or Special SI of the police, the Madras High Court has ruled.

Observing that only actual satisfaction is required for promotion in police constabulary, that too with prospective effect from the dates of the relevant GOs, a full bench gave this ruling on February 4. When a benefit is conferred in the GOs, the requirements to get such a benefit must be satisfied. There is no scope for a "deemed" satisfaction, it said.

The full Bench of justices Paresh Upadyyay, N Anand Venkatesh and Krishnan Ramaswamy was passing orders on a batch of over 600 writ petitions and appeals filed, both in the Madras High Court and its Madurai Bench from 2014 to 2021.

The issue came up following two conflicting orders by two different benches on the issue relating to the promotion of constables from Grade II to SI/SSI.

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While the first order delivered in 2013 stated that 10 years of service as head constable is not necessary for promotion, the second one passed in 2017 held that 10 years of qualifying service out of the total service of 25 years is mandatory for the promotion as SI/SSI. Hence, the first bench (headed by CJ) had referred the matter to the present full bench to decide as to which is one is correct.

The full bench said a careful reading of the GOs clearly showed that there is no scope for any deemed upgrade. The GOs made it abundantly clear that a constable or head constable, as the case may be, should have held the relevant post for the fixed period of time to claim upgrade.

If the police personnel were aggrieved by such a stipulation, they ought to have challenged the GOs. But, no one had chosen to challenge them and an attempt was being made now to twist the GOs to suit their requirement, the bench pointed out.

"This court has to necessarily understand the GOs in the plain language used in them and see if the police personnel concerned are satisfying the requirement. When a benefit is conferred, the requirements to get such a benefit must be satisfied. There is no scope for a deemed satisfaction and what is expected is the actual satisfaction of the requirements. The personnel concerned want these GOs to be implemented in such a way that upon completing the fixed period namely 25 years of overall service, they would get upgradations automatically," the bench said.

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"The benefit of upgrading to the next level of promotion can be granted only by taking into account the completion of the qualifying service in each level of rank as prescribed in the GOs. There is no scope for any deemed upgradation or deemed promotion to the next level/rank and such an interpretation of the GOs will cause violence to the plain language that had been used in them," the bench said.

Moreover, every upgrade involved financial implications and the sanction is accorded by the Finance Department as per the terms of the GOs by anticipating the exact increase in the expenditure by virtue of the upgradation/promotion. If such deemed upgradation or deemed promotion is read into the GOs, it will not only go beyond their scope, but also will end up in granting the benefit to those persons who are not covered under the GOs.

The direct consequence will be that there will be a huge outflow of expenditure than what was expected through the beneficial scheme and it will put a lot of strain on the state’s exchequer, the bench said.

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