The U-Turn on Tribunals

During my internship at the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal, I witnessed something that didn't make it to my textbook. The Tribunal was dealing with a case where the respondent, a government employee, was demanding a promotion based on seniority. What caught my attention was how the Tribunal, while interpreting the promotional rules, considered the doctrine of 'legitimate expectation'. This doctrine essentially means that a government employee has a legitimate expectation of being promoted if they've consistently performed well and followed the promotion rules.

The interesting part? The Tribunal ruled that the employee's expectation was legitimate because, for years, the government had been following a certain promotion procedure that benefited the employee's seniority. It was like the government's own bureaucratic machinery had created an expectation that the employee could rely on. This case taught me the importance of considering real-world factors when applying theoretical concepts like judicial review.