STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs. C ILANGO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGGRIEVED by the order of the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal dated 10.04.2002 made in O.A.No.4809 of 1999, in and by which the Tribunal has directed the Department to give accelerated promotion to the applicant from 22.04.1997, the Home Department has filed the above writ petition.

(2.) THE case of the first respondent herein is that, he was directly recruited as Sub-Inspector of Police in the year 1976 and in 1981 he became Inspector of Police. He has been awarded 164 rewards and 16 meritorious entries and he was a Member of the Team constituted for apprehending one Asaithambi on 31.07.1996. In that, he disguised himself as a Driver of a private vehicle, took one Suthakar Reddy with a box to Asaithambi for the release of one Sudhir Reddy, who was held by Asaithambi for ransom. As soon as Asaithambi appeared, the applicant shot at and killed him with three bullets, when the Gangsters of Asaithambi fired indiscriminately at him. For this, he was given Chief Minister's medal. However, according to the applicant, he was not awarded the accelerated promotion, as was given to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Inspector of Police and other officials. Hence, he approached the Tribunal by filing O.A.No.4809 of 1999.

(3.) IN the light of the above guidelines, let us consider the involvement of the first respondent and others in the incident that took place on 31.07.1996 at 4.00 p.m. The details regarding the said incident as described and narrated by the Department in the counter affidavit filed before the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal are relevant, which read as under.