Awarding promotion to senior IAS officer Prafulla Chandra Mishra and IFS AK Sinha was not based on the law, said the law Department in a letter to the General Administration (GA) department which had sought an opinion on the promotion issue.
Though the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) had recommended Mishra’s name for promotion to Chief Secretary cadre and Sinha’s name to PCCF cadre, the State Government had sealed the order in closed envelopes. Challenging the State Government, Mishra had appealed at the Central Administrative Tribunal on the issue. He had argued that when he could get promotion to become Principal Secretary, he could be promoted to Chief Secretary as well on the same basis.
He had also complained before the tribunal that proper guidelines were not followed during the elevation of the IAS officers to Chief Secretary cadre recently. The tribunal didn’t give any certain order in the case and directed the State Government to take action within 90 days. According to the tribunal, the General Administration (GA) department asked the law Department’s view on the issue which denied the promotion and made it clear that Mishra can’t be demoted to any lower rank.