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Daljit Singh Grewal v. State of Punjab & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 6532 of 2015)Decided 21 Aug 2015
Civil Appeal No. 6532 of 2015
Justice V. Gopala Gowda · Justice S.A. Bobde

Background

The appellant, a District Commander in the Punjab Home Guards Department whose work had earlier been commended (including for averting a railway tragedy), was rated only "average" in his Annual Confidential Report for 1999-2000 by the Director General of Police-cum-Commandant General, with harsh remarks about his conduct. He challenged this rating through representations and a civil suit, which was decreed in his favour, but the adverse rating was still used to deny him promotion to the post of Battalion Commander; a junior officer was promoted instead. His writ petition and review application before the Punjab and Haryana High Court were both dismissed, leading to this appeal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the authority's reliance on the unexplained adverse ACR remarks was improper, especially since a civil court had already set aside the earlier adverse order in the appellant's favour, and because the law (following the Court's own precedent in Sukhdev Singh) requires that an adverse ACR intended to be used against an officer be duly communicated to him so he can represent against it. Re-examining the appellant's actual marks under the official grading instructions, the Court found that even on the respondents' own figures he had met or exceeded the benchmark required for promotion, and that the denial of promotion was tainted by malafide conduct on the part of the deciding authority. The Court set aside the High Court's judgment and the department's denial of promotion, directed the authorities to treat the appellant as notionally promoted to Battalion Commander (he had since been prematurely retired) for pension and other monetary benefits, ordered compliance within eight weeks with a report to the Court, and allowed the appeal with costs of Rs. 10,000 against the respondents.

Lesson Learnt

An adverse confidential performance report cannot be used to deny a government employee promotion unless it was properly communicated to them with a fair opportunity to respond, and courts will look behind unexplained or unreasoned adverse remarks, especially where the employee's actual recorded marks otherwise meet the promotion criteria.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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