HC raps Haryana for ‘arrogance’, fines Rs 5 lakh in promotion row
In a scathing judgment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has reprimanded the Haryana Government for “brimming arrogance” and deliberate suppression of facts in a promotion case. The court imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on the state for misleading the court and denying a deserving officer his rightful promotion.
Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj, allowing a petition by a revenue officer repeatedly denied promotion to the post of ‘B’ Class Tehsildar, observed: “It seems that the state is too full of pride and brimming arrogance that it has forgotten its prime role of treating all subjects with equality and compassion. It cannot wear an unlawful conduct as a badge of honour.”
The judge found the state’s stand regarding the number of vacancies as “demonstrably dishonest” and held that it deliberately withheld the petitioner’s service record, only to later use the absence of an application as a pretext to deny him consideration.
“The state cannot be permitted to behave as a cunning litigant and has to remain impersonal and truthful in its replies and narratives — a quality which is found severely lacking and deficient in the everyday litigation that falls for consideration of this court every day,” the court remarked.
Justice Bhardwaj described the conduct as “dishonest, arbitrary and actuated by malice,” stating that the government acted not as a neutral employer but as a “prejudiced actor, driven by considerations wholly extraneous to merit and legality.”
He noted that the officer, despite being at serial number three in the seniority list, was excluded from the April 2022 promotion process on the grounds of a pending vigilance inquiry — grounds that had already been invalidated in a previous court order. Yet, the state not only made appointments in October 2024 but also initiated a fresh recruitment drive for nine more posts in November, all while ignoring the petitioner.
“The respondents’ stand that only two vacancies existed and were filled accordingly is not only disingenuous but demonstrably dishonest and mischievous,” the judge held.
The court further said the state had been “conspicuously silent” on the actual number of vacancies, despite the petitioner producing documents contesting its claims. “Withholding best information cannot be devised as a means to delay proceedings or testing Courts and instead consequences shall fall sooner hitherto,” Justice Bhardwaj warned.
Calling the officer’s exclusion “deliberate and premeditated,” he condemned the “novel and insidious methodology” adopted by the state to subvert fair consideration.
Haryana Tribune