Qualifying Service for Promotion Counts from Calendar Year of Joining, Not Actual Date: Chhattisgarh HC Division Bench

A Division Bench of the Chhattisgarh High Court set aside a Single Judge order, holding that eight years of qualifying service for promotion must be computed from the calendar year of joining under Rule 6(2) of the Chhattisgarh Public Services (Promotion) Rules, 2003, and directed the State to consider four Sub Inspectors (Radio) for promotion as on 01.01.2025.

The High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur, in a writ appeal decided on 1 September 2026, reversed a Single Judge's dismissal of a service matter concerning four Sub Inspectors (Radio) who had sought promotion to the post of Inspector (Radio). Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha, leading the Division Bench alongside Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal, held that the Explanation to Rule 6(2) of the Chhattisgarh Public Services (Promotion) Rules, 2003 expressly requires qualifying service to be counted from the calendar year of joining the feeder cadre, and not from the employee's actual date of joining. The Single Judge had calculated eligibility using actual joining dates, placing the appellants' eligibility date at 01.01.2026. The Division Bench found that reading contrary to the plain text of the rule and directed the State to convene a Departmental Promotion Committee to consider the appellants' cases as on 01.01.2025.

Sub Inspectors Appointed in November 2017 Denied DPC Consideration

The four appellants — Om Prakash Dewangan, Dharmesh Kumar Sahu, Aparajita Singh Rana, and Gaurav Shukla — were appointed to the post of Sub Inspector (Radio) by order dated 30.10.2017 after qualifying the prescribed recruitment process. They joined their respective posts in November 2017, with actual joining dates of 04.11.2017, 06.11.2017, 12.11.2017, and 13.11.2017.

Their service conditions are governed by the Chhattisgarh Police Executive (Non-Gazetted) Service Recruitment Rules, 2021. Under Schedule-IV of those Rules, eight years of service in the post of Sub Inspector (Radio) is the prescribed qualifying service for promotion to Inspector (Radio). Rule 16 of the Rules of 2021 specifically provides that the Departmental Promotion Committee shall consider the cases of persons who, on the first day of January of the relevant year, have completed the prescribed number of years of service.

The appellants argued that seven posts of Inspector (Radio) were lying vacant, that they were senior in the gradation list, and that DPCs had already been convened and promotion orders issued for other officers of the department — but their own cases were not placed before any DPC. Representations to the authorities drew no response, leading them to file W.P.(S) No. 11544 of 2025 before the learned Single Judge.

The Legal Question: Calendar Year or Actual Joining Date?

The core dispute turned on the correct method of computing the eight-year qualifying service period. The appellants relied on the Explanation to Rule 6(2) of the Chhattisgarh Public Services (Promotion) Rules, 2003. That Explanation states that the period of qualifying service as on 1st January of the relevant year in which the DPC is convened “shall be counted from the calendar year in which the public servant has joined the feeder cadre” and not from the date of joining.

On this reading, because the appellants joined the feeder cadre in 2017 — regardless of the November date — the entire calendar year 2017 constitutes the first year of qualifying service. Eight years would thus be complete at the end of 2024, rendering the appellants eligible for promotion as on 01.01.2025.

The State contested this. Its counsel submitted that as on 01.01.2025, none of the appellants had completed eight full years from their actual joining dates — they had accumulated only approximately seven years and one month. The State argued that Rule 16 of the Rules of 2021 requires actual fulfilment of the prescribed service as on 1st January of the relevant year, and that the interpretation sought by the appellants could not override the Recruitment Rules. The Single Judge accepted the State's position and dismissed the writ petition, holding that the appellants would complete eight years in October 2025 and become eligible only from 01.01.2026.

Division Bench: Plain Text of Explanation Leaves No Room for Doubt

The Division Bench examined the text of Rule 6(2) and its Explanation at length. It observed that a plain reading of the Explanation “leaves no manner of doubt” that the rule-making authority consciously prescribed the calendar year of joining as the starting point for computation and specifically excluded the actual date of joining as the basis for such computation.

Applying this method year by year, the Bench traced the appellants' qualifying service: first year in 2017, second in 2018, third in 2019, fourth in 2020, fifth in 2021, sixth in 2022, seventh in 2023, and eighth in 2024. On this computation, the eight-year period was complete as on 01.01.2025.

The Bench held that the Single Judge erred in proceeding on the basis of actual joining dates. The actual November 2017 dates could not be made the basis for postponing the appellants' eligibility when the statutory provision expressly directed otherwise. The Bench further held that the State's argument — that the appellants had completed only about seven years and one month of service as on 01.01.2025 — could not be accepted because it rendered the Explanation to Rule 6(2) otiose.

The appellants had also argued that departmental SOPs or internal instructions relied upon by the State could not override statutory rules framed under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India, and that other wings of the Police Department had been computing qualifying service from the calendar year. The Bench's reasoning on the plain text of the Explanation was sufficient to resolve the appeal, and the Division Bench directed the DPC to proceed accordingly.

On the State's submission that promotion cannot be claimed as a matter of right merely because vacancies exist, the Bench did not dispute the principle but noted that the availability of seven vacant posts of Inspector (Radio) and the appellants' seniority position in the gradation list required their cases to be placed before the competent DPC for consideration in accordance with law.

Order

The Division Bench set aside the order dated 10.10.2025 passed by the Single Judge in W.P.(S) No. 11544 of 2025 and allowed WA No. 944 of 2025. The respondents — the State of Chhattisgarh, the Director General of Police, and the Additional Director General of Police (Telecommunication) — were directed to consider the cases of the four appellants for promotion to the post of Inspector (Radio), treating them as having completed the requisite eight years of qualifying service as on 01.01.2025, in accordance with the applicable Rules. The direction requires consideration by the competent Departmental Promotion Committee, subject to fulfilment of all other eligibility conditions and availability of vacancies, with all consequential benefits, in accordance with law.