HC rejects PIL against promotion of 7 IAS officers

Chennai: Madras high court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest writ petition as not maintainable challenging the promotion of seven Tamil Nadu IAS officers, including T Udhayachandran, of 1995 batch, to the grade of chief secretary. The petition alleged that the state failed to obtain prior approval of the Union govt as mandated by service rules.The petitioner, M Balakrishnan, had also sought direction to the Tamil Nadu accountant-general to maintain status-quo and refrain from granting, implementing or disbursing any pay, allowances, perquisites, arrears, pensionary or other monetary benefits pursuant to the GO unless and until prior approval of the Union govt is obtained.Refusing to entertain the plea as a PIL, the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said, PILs which pertain to service matter are not maintainable.The issue pertains to a GO issued by the Tamil Nadu govt on Dec 2025 promoting IAS officers M A Siddique, R Jaya, P Senthilkumar, Sandhya Venugopal Sharma, T Udhayachandran, Hitesh Kumar S Makwana and B Chandra Mohan to the chief secretary grade with effect from Jan 1, 2026.Challenging the GO, the petitioner, a practicing advocate contended that the state cannot issue such a GO without prior approval of the Union govt. He pointed out that the state govt through a proposal dated Nov 10, 2025, sought approval from the Union for notifiying the promotions. However, the competent authority through a communication dated Nov 21, 2025, rejected the proposal citing multiple statutory violations, including excess operation of ex-cadre posts beyond permissible limits and absence of prior approval.Despite such explicit rejection, the state proceeded to initiate and complete the promotion process. As the action of the state is ex facie without jurisdiction and arbitrary, the petitioner has made several representations bringing these illegalities to the notice of the authorities. However, no action was taken. Hence, the petitioner has filed the present petition, he said.