NCST has no power to direct grant of promotion: High Court

In its July 6, 2015 communication, the NCST had advised the government to grant regular promotion to Meena and send a compliance report on it.

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has no power to pass orders directing the Centre to grant promotion to an employee, the Delhi High Court has said. The court said this while allowing a petition filed by the Centre challenging the April 30, 2015 order passed by the NCST directing that Ram Kishore Meena, an employee of the National Crime Records Bureau, be promoted to the post of lower division clerk from 2006.

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Justice Valmiki J Mehta referred to a 1996 verdict passed by the Supreme Court which had held that the Schedule Castes Commission has no power to pass judgments like a court of law and cannot order directions in the nature of injunctions to give reliefs like promotion and pay scale.

“It is, therefore, clear that respondent no.2, in the present case being the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, had no power to pass the impugned order dated July 6, 2015 which issued directions for promotion of respondent no.1 (Meena),” the high court said.

“In view of the above, this writ petition is allowed and disposed of setting aside the impugned order dated April 30, 2015 of the respondent no.2 (NCST),” the court said.

In its July 6, 2015 communication to the Centre, the NCST had advised the government to grant regular promotion to Meena to the post of lower division clerk from 2006 and send a compliance report on it.