SARWAN KUMAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner's grievance is two -fold - -i) that he was wrongly overlooked for promotion on the basis of his ACR gradings; (ii) that his case was not considered for promotion to the rank and grade of Inspector General (IG) in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in terms of the SSB Group 'A' Combatised (General Duty) Director General, Additional Director General, Inspector General, Deputy Inspector General and Commandant Posts Recruitment Rules 2013 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules'), which were brought into force on 17.06.2013.

(2.) THE facts are not disputed. The petitioner joined the SSB as an Assistant Commandant in November, 1984; he was subsequently promoted as Deputy Commandant and later as Second -in -Command and subsequently in 2005 as Commandant. In the same year, he was promoted as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in August, 2005. It is contended that the petitioner had earned Very Good/Outstanding ACRs throughout his career, but for a brief period of four months i.e. 01.04.2008 to 31.07.2008, the ACR was downgraded to 'Good', which was challenged before the Himachal Pradesh High Court. The petition before the Himachal Pradesh High Court was subsequently disposed of.

(3.) LEARNED senior counsel Mrs. Rekha Palli submits that once the decks were cleared with the SSB itself deciding that no case for departmental proceedings was made out, his case should have been considered for promotion to the post of IG. The omission to appropriately reflect the dropping of departmental proceedings in the ACR, in fact, came in the way of the petitioner's due consideration as ACR grading and the related records remained the same as on 14.02.2014 when the fourth respondent was promoted.