HC Upholds Out-Of-Turn Promotion Of Retired Odisha Cop In 2002

PC: Manas Muduli/Twitter

Bhubaneswar: Nearly 20 years after being demoted from Additional Superintendent of Police to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) rank, Nilamani Tripathy got a breather on Tuesday as Orissa High Court quashed the 2004 reversal order.

The single judge bench of Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy upheld his promotion, considering that he was treated as ‘an exceptional officer’ who had ‘five outstanding confidential character rolls by the time the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) recommended his case for promotion.

Tripathy was given out-of-turn promotion on October 3, 2002, and but was again demoted to the post of DSP on May 13, 2004, after Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) advised against it. He retired as DSP on January 31, 2007.

“The period from 13.05.2004 till 31.01.2007 be regularised on notional basis…… On the extension of such benefit on notional basis pension and other pensionary benefits be revised accordingly and differential entitlement as due and admissible be released in favour of the petitioner,” the judge said while directing the state government to complete the entire process in 3 months.

Following his demotion, Tripathy had moved Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT). Though the tribunal on June 24, 2011, directed OPSC to reconsider its recommendation, the latter upheld its earlier advice. In 2013, he again sought OAT intervention and the case was transferred to the HC following abolition of the tribunal in 2015.