Employees Can't Be Left In Perpetual Stagnation Due To Lack Of Promotion Policy: Chhattisgarh High Court

The Chhattisgarh High Court has held that the absence of any promotional avenue resulting in perpetual stagnation of a cadre is arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. The Court observed that the Chhattisgarh Health and Family Welfare Department Non-Clerical Paramedical and Nursing (Directorate Health Service) Class-III Recruitment Rules, 2013, do not provide any promotional channel for Ophthalmic Assistants.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal was hearing a writ petition filed by Ophthalmic Assistants who had been appointed through direct recruitment and had been serving for more than ten years. The petitioners contended that the Recruitment Rules, 2013, did not provide any promotional avenue for the post of Ophthalmic Assistant, resulting in complete stagnation in service. The State opposed the petition, contending that employees have no vested right to promotion or creation of promotional posts and that framing of recruitment rules and promotional avenues falls within the policy domain of the Government.

The Court observed that although policy decisions relating to service conditions and recruitment rules ordinarily do not warrant judicial interference, the Constitutional Courts are duty-bound to exercise judicial review where such policy results in manifest arbitrariness, unreasonable classification or complete denial of any promotional avenue leading to perpetual stagnation of a particular cadre.

The Court noted that the respondents had failed to justify why the cadre of Ophthalmic Assistants alone had been left without any promotional avenue under the Recruitment Rules, 2013, while similarly placed technical cadres had been provided a promotional hierarchy. It observed that several States had already provided promotional channels for Ophthalmic Assistants, demonstrating that the creation of such a hierarchy was administratively feasible.

The Court emphasized that an employee cannot be left remediless and subjected to perpetual stagnation merely because the applicable rules omit a promotional channel. It held that the Chhattisgarh Health and Family Welfare Department Non-Clerical Paramedical and Nursing (Directorate Health Service) Class-III Recruitment Rules, 2013, to the extent they failed to provide any promotional channel for the post of Ophthalmic Assistant, were arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

“… the Chhattisgarh Health and Family Welfare… Rules, 2013, to the extent they fail to provide any promotional channel for the post of Ophthalmic Assistant, are arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India and, therefore, cannot be sustained,” the Court observed.

Accordingly, the Court directed the respondents to examine the grievance of the petitioners and take appropriate steps for framing suitable rules.

Case Title: Vidyasagar Ratre & Ors. v. State of Chhattisgarh & Ors. [WPS No. 9928 of 2025]