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P. Sivanandi v. Rajeev Kumar & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 4822-4826 of 2007)Decided 2 Feb 2017
Civil Appeal Nos. 4822-4826 of 2007
Justice Madan B. Lokur · Justice Prafulla C. Pant

Background

Sivanandi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, was considered for promotion to the Indian Police Service in 1994-95, but two of his Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs), for 1992-93 and for part of 1993-94, were missing or not yet written, so he was initially graded only "Good." After the selection was set aside and a Review Select Committee reconsidered him in 1999 with both ACRs now available (the later one having been written with some delay by his superiors), he was upgraded to "Very Good" and promoted with an earlier year of allotment. Other officers challenged this before the Central Administrative Tribunal, which held that the delayed ACR could not validly be considered, a view the Madras High Court upheld, prompting Sivanandi's appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that an ACR forms part of an officer's service record and must be considered by a Selection/Review Committee in its entirety, relying on its earlier ruling in G. Mohanasundaram v. R. Nanthagopal (2014) that a prescribed period for writing an ACR is directory, not mandatory, and that an officer cannot be penalised for delay caused by his superiors in writing or reviewing it. Since withholding a validly-existing ACR merely because it was late had no rational basis, the Tribunal and High Court erred in excluding Sivanandi's 1993-94 ACR from consideration. The Court also found no reason to interfere with the Review Select Committee's overall merit-based grading, noting it was actually the previously-missing 1992-93 ACR that tipped Sivanandi's grading upward. Accordingly, both tagged appeals were allowed, the High Court's order was set aside, and Sivanandi's promotion with consequential benefits was upheld.

Lesson Learnt

A government employee's full service record, including Annual Confidential Reports, must be considered for promotion even if a particular ACR was written later than the prescribed timeline by the employee's superiors; delay caused by others in the chain of command cannot be held against the employee being evaluated.

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

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