MAJ GEN S P SINHA Vs. UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner was commissioned in the Army Ordinance Corps on December 24, 1972 and had an unblemished record; earning promotions upto the rank of Major General. He is a recipient of honors like Vishisht Seva Medal, which he received in the years 2005.

(2.) PERTAINING to his ACR grading for the year 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 as also his non-empanelment for promotion to the rank of Lt.General on August 07, 2008 and secondly on August 12, 2009, petitioner made a statutory representation on March 29, 2010 to the Central Government, which partially succeeded, when as per order dated July 23, 2010, the ACR gradings for the years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 were set aside on technical grounds and this resulted in the petitioner being required to be re-appraised for promotion as a case of first review.

(3.) PERTAINING to the year 2009, when the Board had met in August 2009, admittedly there were two vacancies. At that time three officers being : the petitioner, Major General G.S.Narula and Major General Pradeep Bhalla were considered for promotion and on a comparative merit i.e. considering the service profile of the three officers, Major General Pradeep Bhalla and Major General G.S.Narula were recommended for promotion in said order of merit. Thus, while reconsidering the candidature of the petitioner as of August 2009 when the Board re-assembled on August 20, 2010, ignoring the offending ACR gradings of the petitioner, his profile was compared with that of Major General G.S.Narula, for the reason said officer had been ranked at No.2 when the Board had earlier met in August 2009 and thus, at best, the petitioner could have earned a grading above him. The petitioner was appraised below Major General G.S.Narula.