Assam: Guidelines issued for government officials refusing promotion

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The state government’s Personnel Department has issued an office memorandum (OM) on promotion of government employees in the case of refusal by any such employee to accept promotion. The department has decided to come out with certain policies on refusal of promotion and fixation of his or her seniority thereafter.

There have been instances that have come to the attention of the government that its employees, on being promoted to the next higher rank as per the recommendation of the Selection Committee constituted under the provision of respective service rules and orders, sometimes do not accept the promotion and make the representation that they may not be promoted.

It was stated that, since the process of promotion often involves the transfer and posting of the official concerned and is done in the interest of public services, a sudden request to give up promotion hinders the very urgency of the requirement of manpower in higher posts and effective administration.

Moreover, such refusal to accept a promotion also leads to issues of seniority among government servants in the feeder cadre.

The Personnel Department, after careful consideration of all aspects, has decided to frame the following policies on refusal of promotion by a government servant and fixation of seniority thereafter and issued an OM with the detailed procedure to be followed and the repercussions entailed.

The OM says that when a government servant does not want to accept a promotion that might be offered to him based on his seniority-cum-merit or merit-cum-seniority, he may make a written request before the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting is held, and the request will be examined by the appointing authority. If the reasons for his refusal are acceptable to the appointing authority and the request is formally accepted, the next eligible officer in the same category may be promoted.

Moreover, the OM states that if the reasons given for refusal of promotion are acceptable to the appointing authority, a review DPC/Selection Committee meeting will be held at the earliest to recommend an eligible officer of the same category from the revised zone of consideration. However, no fresh offer of promotion would be issued to the officer who refused promotion, during the select year in which he opted out of being promoted, it is stated.

Also, on the eventual promotion to the higher grade, such a government servant will lose seniority in the higher grade in relation to his erstwhile junior promoted to the higher grade earlier because of his refusal to be promoted. However, there will be no bar on his transfer during that year.

 If any employee refuses promotion and the same is accepted by the appointing authority, his case will not be considered for subsequent benefits under the Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACPS) time scale.

If the reasons for such an employee refusing promotion are not acceptable to the appointing authority, then said authority can enforce the decision in the public interest, and if the government servant still refuses to be promoted, then even disciplinary action can be taken against him for refusing to follow government orders.

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