Agartala, June 23 (UNI): Taking the instance of the Centre and states like Jharkhand, the Tripura council of ministers in a meeting last night has adopted the policy of ad hoc basis promotion for state government employees that has been held up for four years due to a pending case in the Supreme Court.
The promotion of the government employees was stopped eight years after General Employees and Officers’ Welfare Society of Tripura had filed a case challenging the reservation policy for SC and ST in the Tripura High Court. A three-judge bench of the high court in April 2015 had observed that the state government has not been adhering to the direction of apex court in reservation of public employment and directed the state to follow law of the land.
The court had also directed the state government to make immediate exercise on the representation of SCs and STs in each and every cadre and post in the various departments and if it is found that any cadre or particular post have been adequately represented (31% for STs and 17% for SCs), reservation would no longer be allowed in the particular cadre or post.
The court had also observed that due to non-application of mind in the Supreme Court order passed in M Nagraj case in 2006 in regard to reservation, genuine candidates belonging to unreserved category were deprived of getting benefit in service.
The state government had moved the apex court challenging the decision of the High Court, and in the meantime, promoted 30 Tripura Civil Service officers to Senior Selection Grade against 22 unreserved posts, two ST reserved and six SC reserved posts on ad hoc basis as per the existing promotion policy.
As a result, only eight general category officers had got the benefit and the rest 22 went in favour of SC and ST officers. To prevent the practice of promotion, General Employees and Officers’ Welfare Society of Tripura had moved to the Supreme Court accusing the state of contempt of the high court order and the apex court subsequently asked the state to cancel the process.
Similar cases have been filed in the Supreme Court from various states and they are pending for the last four years that has affected the functioning of the state governments. Last year, the Centre and many other state governments made conditional promotion of the employees to higher posts on ad hoc basis and Tripura finally followed suit.
According to report, a large number of government employees will benefit from the decision.
