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Jagdish Prasad & Ors. v. P.M. Manoj Kumar & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 572Decided 27 May 2026
C.A. No.-009041-009041 - 2019
Justice Pankaj Mithal · Justice S.V.N. Bhatti

Background

Constables in the Andaman & Nicobar Police Department who were promoted to Head Constable found themselves split into two rival groups fighting over promotion to Assistant Sub-Inspector (Executive): one group (the appellants) wanted promotion purely by seniority-cum-fitness, while the other group (the respondents) had already been promoted through a 2008 selection process that required a written test and matriculation qualification. The Central Administrative Tribunal ruled for the appellants and quashed the selection-based circular, but the Calcutta High Court reversed that, upholding the respondents' selection-based promotions; the appellants then approached the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the 2014 promotion order relied upon by the respondents was expressly "ad hoc" and made subject to the outcome of the pending tribunal case, so it could not be treated as a "completed act" creating a vested right. Applying settled principles that a "substitution" of rules erases the old rule and operates from the date of substitution, and that an employee's right is only to be considered under the rules in force on the date of actual consideration (not the date the vacancy arose), the Court held that the subsequently notified 2016 Rules, which reverted to a 100% seniority-cum-fitness promotion method, governed the field. It set aside the High Court's judgment and directed that all pending ASI-Executive vacancies be filled strictly under the 2016 Rules within two months, while protecting promotions already validly made under the 2016 process.

Lesson Learnt

An "ad hoc" or interim promotion made expressly subject to the outcome of pending litigation does not ripen into a permanent, vested right merely because time passes; and when service rules are validly "substituted," the new rules, not the ones in force when a vacancy first arose, govern promotions considered thereafter.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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