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Pradeep Kumar vs. Union of India & Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026:DHC:7778Decided 7 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
W.P.(C) 4314/2019CNR: DLHC010197442019
Justice Sanjeev Narula

Background

Pradeep Kumar joined the India Government Mint, Noida in 1988 and was promoted from Assistant Grade-I to Junior Technician in January 2003, when both posts happened to carry the same pay scale. In 2006 these two posts were formally merged into a single post, and when the Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACPS) came into force in 2008, the Screening Committee treated his 2003 promotion as his "second promotion" and denied him a second financial upgradation, even though two of his juniors, who had not received that particular promotion before the merger, were granted the higher pay. He challenged the rejection of his 2019 representation before the Delhi High Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that while the 2003 movement was genuinely a promotion at the time, MACPS Scheme paragraph 5 requires past promotions to be ignored for upgradation purposes once the posts between which they occurred have since been merged into one, as happened here in 2006, even though paragraph 8 (which counts same-Grade-Pay promotions) would otherwise apply. The Court relied on the Department of Personnel and Training's own advice on this specific case and on the Supreme Court's reasoning in Union of India v. Harbans Lal Verma to conclude that the 2003 promotion must be excluded when computing MACPS entitlement. It also rejected the employer's territorial-jurisdiction objection, since the decision under challenge was taken in New Delhi.

Lesson Learnt

When two posts in a promotional ladder are later merged into one, a promotion earned between them before the merger may have to be excluded for calculating career-progression benefits, even though it remains valid as a promotion in every other respect: employees should check whether cadre restructuring after their promotion affects MACPS-type upgradation calculations.

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