Voices. Verdicts. Vision

Voices. Verdicts. Vision

Retired Jharkhand Doctors to Get Career Progression Benefits from 2002: Jharkhand High Court

Dr Jeewan Kumar Mitra v. State of Jharkhand [Decided on 3.09.2025]

Retired Doctors Benefits

The Jharkhand High Court at Ranchi comprising of Justice Ananda Sen, allowed a batch of writ petitions filed by retired doctors from the state medical cadre seeking revision of their service benefits under the Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) Scheme.

The petitioners, many of whom are in their late sixties and seventies, argued that they were wrongly deprived of DACP benefits due to the State Government’s decision to shift the cut-off date from 5 April 2002 to 1 September 2008 by a resolution dated 11 September 2013. While this shift was upheld by a Single Judge earlier, the Division Bench in Dr. Shyam Sundar Singh. v. State of Jharkhand) set aside the change, holding that the alteration of the cut-off date was improper. The Supreme Court later dismissed the State’s Special Leave Petition in February 2024, thereby affirming the Division Bench ruling.

In the present petitions, the State contended that the doctors had not approached the court earlier and should not benefit retroactively. Rejecting this argument, the Court held that once a policy decision has been struck down, the benefit must extend to all similarly situated employees, not just those who had litigated. Justice Sen relied on recent Supreme Court judgments, including Lt. Col. Suprita Chandel v. Union of India 2024 SCC Online SC 3664 and K.I. Shephard v. Union of India (1987) 4 SCC 431, which established that employees cannot be penalized for not approaching the court when the law has already been settled in favour of their class.

The Court directed the State and its departments to grant DACP benefits with effect from 5 April 2002 to the petitioners and all other eligible medical officers, with consequential arrears and revisions, to be processed within eight weeks.

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Dr Jeewan Kumar Mitra v. State of Jharkhand

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