The High Court of Jharkhand on Thursday put a ban on all promotions in government departments in the state.

Justice SN Pathak passed the order while hearing a PIL which claimed that a recent decision of the police department will hamper the general category employees’ prospect of getting promotions.

The court ordered the Director General of Police Neeraj Sinha and the state government to file affidavits on the matter.

The next date of hearing has been fixed for August 18.

Petitioner Shrikant Dubey submitted that the DGP issued an order on June 23 on granting promotions to assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) to the post of sub-inspectors (SI).

According to the petitioner, the DGP’s order stated that ASIs in the reserved category can seek promotion in the general category while no such liberty is given to candidates in the general category.

This will also create a division between the ASIs of the general and reserved categories in the police force, he claimed.

The candidates in the reserved category will get an advantage while those in the general category will face hurdles in getting promotion as the number of (SI) positions would be decreased for them, the petitioner stated.

Earlier in January 2020, the state government had on its own put an embargo on the promotion of employees over compliance with SC/ST reservation rules. The matter was challenged in the high court which asked the government to lift the ban in January this year.

-With PTI Input