GURDIP SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner who was commissioned on 30th June, 1963 in the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) of the Army after completion of the officers' training was allotted Indian Commission No. IC -14847 P, and was promoted up to the rank of Lt. Col. in June, 1988, has challenged his reduction in seniority, brought it with the batch of 1965 sticking to the original seniority, that is, date of commission 30th June 1963 and has questioned the ACR for the year 1984 -85 and for grant of promotion to the rank of Colonel.

(2.) FACTS giving rise to this petition are these:

(3.) ACCORDING to the existing rules, an officer is given three chances of consideration for promotion to a particular rank, i.e., (a) Fresh consideration; (b) First Review consideration; (c) Final Review consideration. If the officer does not make the grade in the fresh consideration but is selected in the first review he looses one year seniority for the purpose of all future promotion. If he does not make the grade even in the first review and is selected in the final review, he looses two years seniority for the purpose of all future promotion. The petitioner got promotion to the rank of Lt. Col. in final review selection, therefore, his seniority was reckoned with the 1965 Batch of Officers for further promotion. This criteria for reckoning the seniority was a matter of policy, equally applicable to all (Annexure R -2). According to the records of the Army Headquarters, the petitioner never approached for his premature move on transfer. As regards the ACR the petitioner filed the statutory complaint under section 27 of the Army Act 1950 (for short the' Act') which was examined by the Government of India and after giving due consideration set aside the complete ACR of 1985 -86 written by Brigadier Amarjeet Singh, but did not interfere with the ACR of 1984 -85. Since no adverse comments were endorsed in the ACR for the year 1984 -85 and 1985 -86, the said ACRs were not communicated as per existing Rules.