Promotion of Seven IAS Officers to Chief Secretary Grade Challenged in Madras High Court
A public interest litigation has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging a government order dated December 24, 2025, that promoted seven officers of the 1995 batch of the Indian Administrative Service to the Chief Secretary grade. The petition specifically names T. Udhayachandran among the officers covered by the order. The case was heard by a First Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan.
During the hearing, the judges questioned whether a PIL could be maintained in a matter involving government service conditions. They referred to several Supreme Court rulings, including the 1998 judgment in Dr. Duryodhan Sahu versus Jitendra Kumar, which held that service matters are generally not to be entertained by constitutional courts through PILs. The bench observed that such disputes are ordinarily to be taken before the Central Administrative Tribunal or through writ petitions before a single judge of the High Court, and that PILs should not be used as a shortcut for service-related grievances.
At the request of counsel for the petitioner, who sought time for a senior advocate to appear, the bench adjourned the matter to June 10, 2026. The court noted that Additional Solicitor General A.R.L. Sundaresan, assisted by central government senior panel counsel C. Kulandaivelu, had entered appearance for the Union government.
According to the government order under challenge, the seven officers promoted to the Chief Secretary grade are M.A. Siddique, R. Jaya, P. Senthilkumar, Sandhya Venugopal Sharma, T. Udhayachandran, Hitesh Kumar S. Makwana and B. Chandra Mohan. The promotions were made effective from January 1, 2026. The order also sanctioned temporary Additional Chief Secretary posts in the departments of Economics and Statistics, Health and Family Welfare, and School Education, enabling Jaya, Senthilkumar and Chandra Mohan to continue in those roles.
The order further stated that Hitesh Kumar S. Makwana would stand promoted to the Chief Secretary cadre without prejudice to his central deputation as Surveyor General of India. At the time, Siddique was serving as Managing Director of Chennai Metro Rail Limited, Udhayachandran was Finance Secretary, and Sandhya Venugopal Sharma was chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.
The petitioner, M. Balakrishnan of Anna Nagar in Chennai, argued that the government order should not have been issued without the concurrence or approval of the Centre. He made the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and the Union Cabinet Secretary respondents in the case. He also sought directions to the Principal Accountant General in Tamil Nadu to withhold higher salary, allowances, perquisites, arrears and other pensionary or monetary benefits to the seven officers under the challenged order. The case is now scheduled for further hearing on June 10, 2026.
