Supreme Court bars retrospective curbs on time-scale promotions

The Supreme Court has ruled that government departments cannot apply policy changes retrospectively to deny time-scale promotions to employees who had already met the required criteria.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar issued the ruling at a hearing in Islamabad. The bench also comprised Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan.

The court directed the Prime Minister’s Office and other departments to independently re-examine the cases of employees who were denied such promotions. It issued these directives while disposing of a set of more than 23 civil petitions filed by different government departments, including the Prime Minister’s Office, Dawn reported. The News International also reported that the apex court ordered an individual review of time-scale promotions.

According to Dawn, the bench held that policy changes cannot be applied retrospectively to the detriment of those who had fulfilled the required criteria.

Time-scale promotion is the mechanism under which a government employee moves to a higher grade after completing a prescribed length of service, without waiting for a vacancy.

The decision means employees whose time-scale promotions were denied after a policy change will have their files reopened and their cases considered individually under the rules that were in force when they became eligible.

The court did not set aside the policy changes themselves but barred their retrospective application against employees who had already qualified.

The reports did not specify the number of affected employees or name the departments beyond the Prime Minister’s Office.