Cuttack, May 16: Orissa High Court has held that pendency of criminal case or a departmental proceeding "cannot disentitle a person to be considered for promotion".

The high court ruling was given in the case of an E2 grade engineer of Grid Corporation of Odisha Ltd. The engineer was denied promotion because a vigilance case was pending against him. Kanhu Charan Munda, a member of the scheduled tribe community, junior engineer (electrical) in Dhenkanal, was suspended on May 27, 1997, and departmental proceeding was initiated when the state vigilance department registered a criminal case against him for allegedly demanding bribe of Rs 600.

On January 19, 1998, Munda was reinstated in service and posted as junior engineer in Jajpur Road electrical circle. Later the vigilance court acquitted him of the charges framed against him on February 25, 2009. On acquittal the authorities dropped the departmental proceedings and exonerated him of all charges on November 20, 2009, and the period of suspension was treated as duty.

Munda was promoted to E3 grade on November 23, 2009 with effect from August 30, 2008, when an E2 grade engineer eight years junior to him in service was given promotion to E3 grade with effect from November 8, 2004. When Munda's claim for promotion with effect from November 8, 2004, was turned down on the ground of pendency of the vigilance case, he challenged it in high court.

The high court allowed his petition. The single-judge bench of Justice B.R. Sarangi said: "If vigilance case was pending against the petitioner (Kanhu Charan Munda), his promotion, if found otherwise eligible, could have been kept in sealed cover, and on exoneration from the charges of the departmental proceeding and criminal case, he would have been given the benefit by opening the sealed cover."

"But such procedure has not been adopted in the instant case. In any case, in the opinion of the court the petitioner is entitled to get benefit of promotion from the date his junior has been promoted from E2 to E3 (November 8, 2004). As the petitioner has already been promoted to E3 grade, he is only entitled to get the consequential financial benefits for the differential period and continuity in promotional post so as to entitle him to be considered for next promotion," Justice Sarangi ruled.

"Pendency of criminal case or a departmental proceeding cannot disentitle a person to be considered for promotion," the judge ruled.