The Hindu : Front Page : Court sets aside Air Force order denying promotion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 09, 2004

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Front Page

Court sets aside Air Force order denying promotion

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, NOV. 8. The Delhi High Court today set aside an order by the Air Force denying promotion to Air Vice Marshal (retd.) Harish Masand and Air Vice Marshal T.S. Chhatwal to the rank of Air Marshal in 2004.

In his judgment, Justice Vijender Jain said: "The denial of promotion to the two senior Air Force officers was "arbitrary" and "unreasonable" and amounts to colourful exercise of powers and manipulations to deny promotion to the two meritorious officers." Justice Vijender Jain quashed the promotion policy of 2002 under which they had been denied promotion and directed the Air Force authorities to convene a special promotion board within four weeks of the order and reassess the comparative merit in terms of the new promotion policy, which came into effect on April 1, 2004.

Mr. Justice Jain also directed the Air Force to assess the two petitioners for promotion to the rank of Air Marshal under the new policy in which the marks for performance in the interview had been reduced from 20 per cent to 5 per cent. The two senior officers had alleged that to deny the promotion, the previous promotion policy of seniority-cum-fitness was ignored and a new policy was framed with 20 marks for viva-voce to be given by the Promotion Board members at their discretion and 80 marks for weighted average of the last five years' Annual Reports.

Violative of Article 14

Striking down the promotion policy of March 15, 2002, Mr. Justice Jain said: "It is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and the same is quashed."

Mr. Justice Jain also quashed the recommendations of the Selection Board held in February 2003 and the appointments made pursuant thereto. If any appointment had been made after the 2002 policy, between 2002 and February 2003, the same would not be affected by the order.

On the treatment of the two senior Air Force officers, Mr. Justice Jain said: "The treatment meted out to the two petitioners is a classic case of indifference, high-handedness, arbitrariness and irrationality."

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