Supreme Court: The bench of PC Ghose and Amitava Roy, JJ stayed the implementation of the order of the Armed Force Tribunal, Lucknow (AFT) dated 13.05.2016 where the appellant was reverted from the post of Lt. General to Brigadier.
The appellant belongs to the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) which is responsible for provisioning, receipt, accounting, warehousing, stocking, issue, conditioning, repair, and disposal of all types of Ordnance Stores, Vehicle, Aviation stores and Ammunition. The AFT had ordered for the demotion of the appellant for concealing material facts regarding the unfilled column in the Confidential Report submitted to him. It was held that the appellant had tried to divert the matter with the tacit support of certain persons of Ministry of Defence, by stating that the case is of eraser, over-writing, use of whitener or paper slips pasted to remove or block the original assessment. The AFT said that the Issue of gap or unfilled column is entirely different than the issue of eraser, over-writing, use of whitener, paper slips pasted to remove or block the original assessment. Having said that, the AFT said that the Bench Mark and Criteria mentioned for promotion under the policy cannot be flouted in the matter of selection and promotion.
The Court listed the matter on 09.08.2016 and said that the implementation of the AFT’s order be stayed till then. [Union of India v. Brig. N.K. Mehta 2016 SCC OnLine SC 595, decided on 30.05.2016]
To read the Armed Forces Tribunal Order, Refer below