The Chandigarh Bench of the
Armed Forces Tribunal today directed the government to promote a senior officer, Major General MMR Narang, to the rank of Lt General with all consequential benefits.
Major General Narang was approved for the next rank of Lt Gen but was made to retire in January 1997 as Major General on the pretext that there was no vacancy available in the rank of Lt Gen, it had been contended in the petition.
The officer, belonging to the Corps of Engineers, had then filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1997, later transferred to AFT.
He had claimed that there were three vacancies for the Corps of Engineers out of which one vacancy of Director General Border Roads (DGBR) was available and further there were other vacancies also available, including the post of Director General National Cadet Corps (DGNCC).
He had stated that the appointment of DGNCC was kept vacant for five months and ultimately given to another officer of a junior batch, Lt Gen BS Malik, who was granted extension inservice for three months and then promoted and appointed as DGNCC.
He also stated that another officer, Maj Gen RJ Mordecai, who was declared fit to hold "staff" appointment was not appointed as DGNCC but was appointed as DGBR, a 'Corps' appointment, to keep DGNCC vacant.
He had also stated that the prevalent system of 'chain appointments' was not carried out due to political considerations.
Agreeing with the petition, the AFT Bench comprising Justice MS Chauhan and Lt Gen Munish Sibal, in a strongly worded order today, held that the respondents have not only been unfair to the petitioner but also with the Court by concealing facts which amounted to playing "fraud on the court as well as opposite party".
It has been noted by the Tribunal that the Government had filed a false affidavit in the High Court saying that there were only two vacancies for the Corps of Engineers while in reality there were three.
The Tribunal has observed that even prior to the promotion of Lt Gen BS Malik, for reasons best known to the respondents, post of DGNCC had been 'earmarked'.
It has also been observed that the Government had submitted before the Delhi High Court in another case that there were actually 56 vacancies of Lt Gen including 4 acting vacancies which had been hidden from the AFT in this case where only 52 vacancies had been spelt out, the tribunal said.
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