Sc Rejects Unions' Plea Against Sbi Promotion Policy

The policy deals with promotion from the post of senior management grade scale V to top executive grade scale VI.

The division bench, comprising Justice J S Verma and Justice B N Kirpal, rejected all contentions raised by the employees, including arbitrariness and malafide in individual cases.

The new policy refixed the eligibility criterion for consideration for promotion to top executive grade at four years service in the previous grade/scale, instead of two years fixed earlier.

Secondly, the previous evaluation of the eligible officers was done by allotment of marks on the performance appraisal and interview. An aggregate of 200 marks were being allotted; 100 marks for performance appraisal and another 100 marks for interview. According to the new criterion, 150 marks were allotted for performance appraisal and 50 marks for interview.

The unions had argued that it was unreasonable not to limit the zone of consideration to three to four times the number of vacancies. As a result of the new policy, it was submitted, a much larger number of relatively junior officers have been promoted. These and other contentions, like the policy was meant to benefit a few officers, were rejected by the court.