Ambika bhardwaj
Published On: January 28, 2022 at 18:29 IST
In the case of D. Swamy Joshua v. State of Telangana & Ors., the Telangana High Court held that a right that has been accrued cannot be taken away by a prospective amendment, and benefits obtained under existing rules cannot be revoked by a retrospective amendment.
The comment was made while disposing a batch of Petitions questioning a government order amending the Telangana Police (Civil) Subordinate Service Rules, due to which the Petitioners lost their accrued right to promotion.
Telangana has three major divisions: Special Police, Armed Reserve Police, and Telangana State Police, and all three recruit through a common assessment administered by the Police Recruitment Board.
In 1997, the State Government established three separate sets of rules to regulate separate divisions. Petitioners were initially in Special Police battalions and chose to transfer to Armed Reserve Police because the recruitment rules allowed for such a transfer after ten years of service as a Constable in the Special Police.
The 1997 rules, which came into effect in 1999, established a 10% quota for appointment by transfer under the Andhra Pradesh Police (Civil Police) Subordinate Service Rules.
The Constables were to be given seniority from the date of their initial appointment, regardless of division and if the Petitioners had been in the Special Police Division, they would have been promoted to the post of Constables.
However, while they were waiting for their promotion in the Civil Police organisation, another amendment was made in 2018 that initiated a weightage formula for Civil Police recruitment.
The Court ruled that the Petitioners were entitled to promotion because they were initially appointed as Police Constables in a different division and had completed nearly 17 years of service in two different divisions.
The Court stated that the Amendment would only apply to people who joined the Telangana Civil Police after the said Amendment.
Hence, the Court ruled that all Constables who accrued their rights before 2018 are authorised to a grant of seniority, and transfers made after the amendment will be governed by the Amendment Recruitment Rules.