Earned promotion rights cannot be taken away: HC

The High Court has ruled that authorities cannot deprive public employees of promotion rights and eligibility they had already acquired by retrospectively amending service regulations.

The court observed that although authorities have the power to revise service regulations to meet changing needs, such amendments cannot be applied retrospectively to take away employees’ established legal rights and benefits.

The ruling came in a writ petition filed by Mohammad Kamruzzaman Talukder and six other employees of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) over their promotion prospects.

A High Court bench comprising Justice Khizir Ahmed Chowdhury and Justice AFM Saiful Karim delivered the verdict on August 19. The full 17-page judgment was recently published on the Supreme Court website, with Justice Saiful Karim writing the main judgment.

The petitioners joined BARI as sub-assistant engineers (civil) between 2004 and 2015 and were subsequently confirmed in their jobs.

Under the BARI Regulations, 2011, sub-assistant engineers (civil) were eligible for promotion to assistant engineer (civil) after completing five years of service in the feeder post, with 100% of the posts reserved for promotion.

All seven petitioners had fulfilled the required five years of service and other eligibility conditions before the introduction of the revised regulations in 2021.

However, the government published the BARI Regulations, 2021, in the gazette on March 9 that year, changing the recruitment structure for assistant engineers (civil). Under the new rules, 33% of the posts were allocated for promotion and 67% for direct recruitment. The 100% promotion quota for sub-assistant engineers in the electrical and mechanical branches remained unchanged.

Challenging the change, the seven engineers filed a writ petition in 2021, arguing that they had already acquired the right to be considered for promotion under the previous regulations.

Their lawyer, SRM Lutfor Rahman Akhand, argued that applying the revised rules to the petitioners would unlawfully restrict their promotion opportunities and create discrimination.

BARI’s lawyer, Kabir Iqbal Hossain, countered that the 2011 regulations had been repealed and replaced by the 2021 rules. He argued that employees could not claim promotion under repealed regulations and that direct recruitment of BSc engineers was introduced to improve professional standards in the civil branch.

After examining the arguments and documents, the High Court held that the 2021 regulations could not be applied retrospectively to the petitioners, who had already fulfilled the requirements for promotion under the earlier rules.

The court directed the authorities to consider their promotion to assistant engineer (civil) under the relevant provisions of the 2011 regulations.

It also ordered that the promotion process be completed within one month, subject to the availability of vacant posts, eligibility and compliance with other applicable legal requirements.

The court disposed of the rule with these directions and ordered that the judgment and order be communicated to the relevant authorities immediately.