CHANDIGARH: The
Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has directed
Army headquarters to revisit its December 2017
promotion policy. The tribunal held that a subsequent policy can’t take away the rights an officer accrued under an existing policy.
The order is expected to shield officers from “arbitrary retrospective application” of fresh promotion policies that results in changing goalposts midway. The order was passed on October 5 and was made available on Saturday. AFT’s principal bench of chairperson Justice Virender Singh and member Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra, passed these orders when allowing a petition by
Major General V K Singh of
Armoured Corps.
Maj Gen Singh was due for promotion to the rank of Lt Gen in October 2017 but was not promoted over adverse remarks in his confidential reports. He had represented his case before the higher authorities who expunged the remarks after which his case was to be considered for promotion by a special review board. In the meantime, army headquarters issued a fresh policy in December 2017 stating there would be only one promotion board in a year that would look at special review cases.
In his case, the officer contended he was to be considered under the guidelines applicable in October 2017 because his case was a ‘review’ of the original board and if the new guidelines are applied, he would retire before being promoted. Accepting his plea, the tribunal held that since the wrong had now been corrected, he was to be considered as a ‘fresh’ review case based on October 2017 policy. The tribunal has held his “position cannot be altered by any new policy” that could place him at a “disadvantageous position”.
