In the Petition regarding promotion Rules for IAS, IPS and IFS filed by IPS Officer Amitabh Thakur, Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Lucknow Bench today asked three Ministries of the Central Government to file its reply within 6 weeks. These three Ministries are Ministry of Personnel and Training (for IAS), Home Ministry (IPS) and Ministry of Environment and Forest (IFS). Next date if hearing has been fixed on 01 March 2013.
The petition says that as per section 3 of the All India Services Act 1951, the Central Government is required to make rules for the regulation of the conditions of service of All India Services officers but it has not framed any definite rule for promotion of these officers. Instead the promotions are being regulated by Government Guidelines, having legal sanctity, passed by respective Cadre controlling Ministries.
As per the petition, these Guidelines are in contradiction with some of the already existing Rules. While rule 2(a) of the Pay Rules of these services says that there shall be a benchmark score for promotion, these guidelines say there shall be no such benchmark. These Guidelines also leave ample scope for arbitrariness.
The petition prays for formulating Rules and for deleting improper Guidelines for promotion to these services.