Legality and propriety

Promotion on an 'officiating basis' should be resorted to only in the circumstances visualized in R.13(i) of the Punjab Civil Servants (Appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1974

Promotion on 'officiating basis' was a purely temporary and stopgap arrangement for a limited period

Such a stopgap arrangement in no circumstance should be allowed to continue for years on end

Supreme Court directed that it would be just and fair if a timeframe of two years was followed in case of promotion on 'officiating basis', unless there were extraordinary circumstances necessitating extension of such period further for a limited duration, and such extraordinary circumstances must be reduced in writing by the competent authority directing such extension; that such extensions could not be undertaken in a routine and thoughtless manner and could only be made where circumstances spelt out in R. 13 of Punjab Civil Servants (Appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1974 were in existence; that if the law provided a specified period of probation for appointments against regular posts, a free hand should not be given to Government Departments to undertake promotions on officiating basis for unlimited and unspecified periods

Supreme Court observed that the practice of officiating promotion, ad hoc promotion/ appointment or temporary appointment etc. was used by Government Departments to keep civil servants under their influence by hanging the proverbial sword of Damocles over their heads (of promotion 'on officiating basis' liable to reversion); that this was a constant source of insecurity, uncertainty and anxiety for the concerned civil servants for motives which were all too obvious, and that such practice must be seriously discouraged and stopped in the interest of transparency, certainty and predictability, which were hallmarks of a system of good governance.