RAMENDRA CHAKRABORTY Vs. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved by the refusal of the respondent authorities to promote him to the rank of Second-in-Command in the Border Security Force ("BSF") for two years in a row i.e. in the year 2005 and 2006 this writ petition is filed by him to seek the intervention of this Court.

(2.) The case of the petitioner, in a nutshell, is that he joined the BSF on 19-6-1968 as a Constable, was promoted to Platoon Commander in July, 1972, was again promoted in the rank of Inspector in June, 1984 and was further promoted in the rank of Assistant Commandant on 29-1-1992. He was again promoted to the rank of Deputy Commandant with effect from 7-10-1998. He was then considered for promotion to the post of Second-in-Command by the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) for the year 2005-06 on 1-4-2005 but was assessed as ineligible due to non-completion of the mandatory courses as on 1-1-2005, which was the crucial date for determining the eligibility for such promotion vide DOP & T instructions No. 22011/9/98(Estt(d) dated 1-2-1999. There is no dispute that as per the Border Security Force (General Duty Affairs) Recruitment rules, 2001, qualifying in one of the courses of Medium Machine Gun/Mortar/Field Engineering/Battalion Support Weapon is mandatory for further promotion from Deputy Commandant to Second-in-Command. He did not complete any of these mandatory courses, the petitioner was not considered for promotion by the DPC. He was again considered for promotion to the same post by the DPC on 7-3-2006, but he was found "Unfit" as he could not make the bench mark grading in his confidential record of service apart from his being placed in the low medical category (SIHIAI P3(T-48) E1. The contention of the respondent authorities is that the petitioner was downgraded.

(3.) It is submitted by Mr. B. Sarma, the learned counsel for the petitioner, that as the petitioner had completed the mandatory course of 81 MM Mortar on 11-1-2005, which exceeded the cut-off date of 1-1-2005 by just ten days, the respondent authorities should have condoned this marginal shortage for enabling him to be eligible for consideration to the rank of Second-in-Command. The learned counsel further contends that as a disciplined and dedicated officer, who made it to the rank of Deputy Commandant from the lowest rank of Constable in the BSF, who had earned very good grading in the past, it is a matter of surprise that within 12 months, he had been downgraded from good to average or very good to good: this is presumed to be adverse and below the benchmark of "Very Good" for promotion in the rank of Second-in-Command. He contends that every entry in the ACR poor, fair, average, good or very good should have been communicated to the petitioner within a reasonable period and having omitted to do so, such downgraded ACR should not have been taken into consideration or, at any rate, he should have been given an opportunity to make representation against such entry before considering his case together with other eligible candidates for the promotion. In this view of the matter, submits the learned counsel, the impugned promotion order is liable to be set aside.