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The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited v. G.N. Mani Ravinder and others

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1007Decided 17 Sept 2026
Civil Appeal Nos. 12966-12967 of 2026 (arising out of SLP(C) Nos. 24406-24407 of 2023)
Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra · Justice Ujjal Bhuyan

Background

The respondents were Hindi Translators working on an officiating basis as Assistant Director (Official Language)/"Rajbhasha Adhikari" in BSNL (formerly the Department of Telecommunications), under old administrative orders that promised automatic promotion after a set number of years' service. Before they could be regularised, new statutory rules were framed in 2002 (never actually implemented) and then in 2005, which required candidates to clear a written test for promotion to the post. The respondents' writ petitions, seeking promotion under the pre-2005 regime without the test, were allowed by a single judge and upheld by a Division Bench of the High Court, prompting BSNL's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The core question was which of two prior Supreme Court precedents governed the case: Mishri Lal (which denied relief to employees who were only ever "officiating," with no vested right to promotion under the old rules) or Medini C. (which favoured employees who had been "provisionally promoted," a materially different status). The Court held that the respondents here, like those in Mishri Lal, were merely officiating and had never been regularly or even provisionally promoted, so their case fell squarely within Mishri Lal rather than Medini C. Applying its separate ruling in State of Himachal Pradesh vs Raj Kumar (which held there is no vested right to be considered for promotion under rules that existed when a vacancy arose, and that government policy on filling vacancies under new rules is valid if fair and reasonable), the Court concluded the High Court could not have directed the respondents' promotion under the repealed, pre-2005 rules. The impugned High Court judgments were set aside and the appeals allowed.

Lesson Learnt

An employee who has only ever worked in an "officiating" (stop-gap) capacity, as opposed to being formally or even provisionally promoted, does not acquire a vested right to be promoted under old rules simply because those rules existed when the vacancy first arose; the government is entitled to apply new, updated recruitment rules (such as a written exam requirement) so long as the change in policy is fair and reasonable.

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

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