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IC 29547 L Bobby Joseph v. Union of India

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1139Decided 4 Oct 2019
Civil Appeal arising out of Diary No. 10043 of 2017
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

The appellant, a former Army officer, was granted Short Service Commission in 1969 and Permanent Commission in 1974, and voluntarily retired in 1991 as a Major, receiving pension at that rank. He later sought revision of his pension to the higher rank of Lt. Colonel (Time Scale), relying on a 1991 order that had approved his promotion to that substantive rank, but the Army rejected this on the ground that he was short of the required 21 years of reckonable service by about 30 days. The Armed Forces Tribunal dismissed his challenge, holding his reckonable service fell short of the threshold, prompting this appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that a 1991 order had in fact approved the appellant's promotion to the substantive rank of Lt. Colonel (Time Scale) and listed his name among those promoted, and that the government's own counsel admitted this order had never been withdrawn, even though she claimed it was issued "due to a mistake." The Court held that since the promotion order stood un-rescinded, the government could not rely on reckonable-service calculations to deny him pension at the Lt. Colonel rank. It allowed the appeal, directed payment of pension applicable to Lt. Colonel (TS), and also awarded Rs. 50,000 in costs for the prolonged litigation the officer was put through since his 1991 retirement.

Lesson Learnt

A government order that grants a benefit (like a promotion) cannot later be ignored by the same government to deny the consequential entitlement (like pension) unless that order is formally withdrawn: an unwithdrawn official record binds the authorities even if they later call it a "mistake."

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

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