SUBHASH RAMKRISHNA BHANDARE Vs. COAL INDIA LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are executives who were working in E-6 Grade in different subsidiaries of Coal India Limited (for short, 'CIL') at the material point in time. All the 235 writ petitioners held the post of Senior Managers at time of filing of the Writ Petition. The petitioners have challenged the promotional policy from E-6 to E-7 Grade along with the PRIDE system of Marking of the Executive Evaluation Reports (EERs) and the Orders of Promotion dated August 13, 2019; August 14, 2019; August 15, 2019 and August 16, 2019 promoting some of the executives from E-6 to E-7 Grade in supersession to that of the petitioners.

(2.) The petitioners have challenged the promotional policy dated May 3rd/5th, 2011 as well as the Performance Report for Individual Development of Executives (for short, 'PRIDE') system of marking as communicated in PRIDE form and Performance Management System (for short, 'PMS') manual. The PRIDE system of marking came into effect from 2013-14. The performance of the executives was assessed by way of Executive Evaluation Report (for short, 'EER'). Initially assessment of EER was by way of preparation of Task Assignment and Acceptance Document (for short, 'TAAD'). Later the said system of Evaluation of EER was replaced by PRIDE system.

(3.) Mr. Bhattacharya, appearing for the petitioners, assailed the promotional policy of 2011 and the promotional orders of 2019 primarily on 2-fold grounds. The first limb of the argument related to the issue that both under TAAD and PRIDE the executives/petitioners' right to appeal/make representations till May 2018, against the EER ratings was restricted to only those officers who obtained an inadequate/poor rating.