Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed the Odisha government to reconsider the promotion of a 1987-batch OAS officer overlooked for IAS cadre over a disciplinary action.
The matter pertains to Sanjita Das, who faced disciplinary action in 2011 for alleged irregularities during her tenure as additional executive officer at Cuttack Municipal Corporation (1995-2000), but the penalty (one increment withheld) was recorded only in 2020 due to administrative delays, impacting her IAS promotion prospects.
Her plea, challenging the delayed implementation, was initially dismissed by a judge in June last year. However, on June 19, a division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman ruled that the delay was administrative and not Das’s fault. It further stated that the delayed entry should not affect her eligibility for promotion to the IAS cadre against vacancies in 2019.
The court ordered the authorities to reconsider her case within three months and grant all resulting benefits, despite her retirement from service in May.
