Mihir Goswami vs Union Of India And Ors.

AM Bujor Barua, J

Heard Mr. I. Choudhury, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Mr. M. Phukan for the respondents in the Union of India and Mr. R. Dhar,

learned counsel for the Principal Secretary to the Govt. of Assam in the Home & Political Department.

The petitioner is a member of the Assam Police Service (APS) who was directlyrecruited in the year 1992. The petitioner was subjected to a

consideration for being promoted to the Indian Police Service (IPS) in the year 2009. One of the criteria for being promoted to the IPS was that the

candidate must have the entry ‘very good’ in his ACR for the given years under consideration. When the result of such consideration was

declared, as per the select list dated 25.02.2011, it was noticed that four other candidates were recommended for promotion as IPS, but the petitioner

was not so recommended.

The petitioner accordingly moved the Director General of Police (DGP) through a DOletter requiring the reasons as to why he was not so

recommended. It is also to be taken note of that for the concerned years the petitioner was not informed of any adverse entry in his Annual

Confidential Report (ACR). The request of the petitioner was put up by the DGP before the Principal Secretary to the Govt. of Assam in the Home

and Political Department. In the process, the petitioner was provided with the copies of the ACR, in which he was graded to be ‘good’, with a

further requirement that the petitioner may submit a representation against each and every column filled in by the Reporting Officer.

The petitioner accordingly submitted a representation vide a Memo No.Bn.12/C/7/PF/MG/ACR/GOs/2007/136 dated 05.06.2013. When the matter

did not progress further, he submitted another representation dated 20.07.2013 before the Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Assam, requesting for a

review of the ACRs.

As a result of the aforesaid process, the entries in the ACR of the petitioner wasupgraded from ‘good’ to ‘very good’. In the resultant

situation, the petitioner made a claim that a review DPC be constituted for examining his case for promotion as IPS. As nothing further happened, the

petitioner submitted an application before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Guwahati, which was numbered as Original Application

No.040/00334 of 2014.

The said OA before the CAT Guwhati was given a final consideration by the judgmentand order dated 03.07.2015 by which a conclusion was

arrived that there was a delay of more than two years in making the application after the publication of the select list on 25.02.2011, by which four

other officers were so promoted. Accordingly, the Original Application was refused on the said ground alone.

Being aggrieved, the present writ petition has been preferred. As the sole ground forrefusing the Original Application was that there was a delay of

more than two years in submitting the representation after publication of the select list on 25.02.2011, the representation of the petitioner dated

20.07.2013 addressed to the Chief Secretary is looked into.

The said representation clearly reflects, as indicated above, that upon the publicationof the select list on 25.02.2011, the petitioner made a DO letter

to the DGP, which was forwarded to the Principal Secretary to the Govt. of Assam in the Home and Political Department and the said process

ultimately resulted in the petitioner being provided with copies of his ACRs containing the entry ‘good’, with further advise that he may submit

representation against such entries. Accordingly, the petitioner submitted his representation dated 05.06.2013, which resulted in the entries being

upgraded from ‘good’ to ‘very good’.

The cause of action for the petitioner to make a claim for a review DPC had arisen only after he was upgraded from ‘good’ to ‘very

good’ and secondly, it has also to be taken note of that the process for upgradation was initiated after the select list was published on 25.02.2011

and the same culminated in favour of the petitioner only in the year 2013 or thereafter. From the said sequence of events, it can be concluded that

immediately after the publication of the select list on 25.02.2011 the process was initiated by the petitioner and therefore, it cannot be said that there

was any delay on his part in staking his claim. The representation dated 20.07.2013 was one of the final steps taken by the petitioner in the said

process and it would be incorrect to say that the said representation was the initiation of the claim made by the petitioner.

In such view of the matter, the sole ground of the learned CAT, Guwahati in rejectingthe Original Application of the petitioner is found to be

unacceptable and accordingly the judgment and order dated 03.07.2015 in Original Application No.040/00334 of 2014 is set aside.

However, as it is an admitted position that the criteria for being considered for beingpromoted to IPS is that the candidate is required to have the

entry of atleast ‘very good’ and the petitioner having in the meantime, being upgraded to ‘very good’ for the given years, which were the

years under consideration at the time of considering his case for promotion as IPS in the year 2009, a legal right has accrued in favour of the petitioner

for being so considered by constituting a review DPC.

Accordingly, instead of remanding the matter to CAT, Guwahati, it is deemedappropriate that the ends of justice would be met if a direction is

issued to the respondent authorities to constitute a review DPC and consider the case of the petitioner as per its own merit.

The writ petition is disposed of in the above terms by directing the Principal Secretaryto the Govt. of Assam in the Home and Political Department

to constitute a review DPC and consider the case of the petitioner as per its own merit and entitlement and bring the process to its logical end.