MAJOR GENERAL ARUN ROYE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A very senior Army Officer holding the rank of Major General has challenged various decisions of the superior authorities in connection with his service career including the matter relating to the claim for promotion to the post of Lieutenat General.

(2.) The petitioner herein now posted as G.O.C., Bengal area is very much aggrieved by the decisions of the respondent authorities for not selecting the said petitioner as fit for promotion to the post of Lieutenant General. According to the petitioner, seeds of the dispute were sown at the time of selection of the said petitioner as Defence Attache/Military Attache to U.S.A. in the year 1996 as it has been submitted on behalf of the petitioner that his aforesaid assignment was not taken in the right spirit by the detractors who started spreading a wrong message that the petitioner was selected and sent to U.S.A. as Defence Attache/ Military Attache at the behest of the then Chief of Army Staff, General Sankar Roy Chowdhury.

(3.) The learned Advocate of the petitioner submits that the respondent authorities on various occasions changed its" policies regarding assessment of army officers and preparation of the confidential reports in order to prejudice the service prospects of the petitioner. From the records it appears that an office order was issued on 7th April, 1998 from the Army Headquarters wherein it has been specifically mentioned that the Chiefs of Staff have approved dispensing with the system of figurative assessment in personal qualities and box-grading and retained only the pen-picture in the confidential reports of the officers holding certain specified appointments.