A Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Indian Coast Guard has been running from pillar to post to get his “illegal and arbitrary” supersession revoked despite a court ruling in his favour.
Hearing a five-year-old case filed by DIG KPS Raghuvanshi, the Delhi High Court recently ordered the Coast Guard to hold another meeting of the Departmental Promotional Committee (DPC) within six weeks and promote Raghuvanshi with retrospective effect.
“We have no hesitation in holding that the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) review of the Petitioner by the Respondent No. 2… was both illegal and arbitrary and deserves to be ignored,” the order stated, slamming the then DG Coast Guard vice- Admiral Anil Chopra for manipulating the ACR, introducing irregularities and disobeying the Ministry of Defence to give an out-of-turn promotion to an officer of his choice, over Raghuvanshi.
However, the Coast Guard, despite the clear instructions, has ignored the court deadline thus far. “The Coast Guard was given 6 weeks by the court to hold a review DPC and award my client his promotion. But it has not complied and we have filed a contempt petition which is now posted for January 2015,” Raghuvanshi’s lawyer Parmanand said.
“It is a motivated act to promote someone close to Chopra and deprive my client of legitimate promotion,” he said adding it’s a case of manipulation of ACRs, which determine the promotion of an officer.
The order states “the records unambiguously support the case of the petitioner that the existing ACR criteria…. was amended clandestinely.”
Besides, Chopra did not observe the 90 days’ rule before giving his assessment. “Chopra had not yet completed 90 days in the post but he twisted rules and gave my client a bad review which resulted in his supersession,” Parmanand claimed.
Chopra’s missive to the Ministry of Defence seeking permission to amend the existing 90-day rule was turned down but he, nevertheless, went ahead with his report. Coming down hard on the Coast Guard for not seeking Cabinet approval to amend ACR criteria, the court said, “Clearly the amendments were effected without due deliberation.”
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard has still not promoted Raghuvanshi even though more than two months have passed since the court instructed it to do so. Instead, the Coast Guard filed an SlP in the Supreme Court. “Despite the clear verdict in favour of the petitioner the Coast Guard is taking all possible steps to delay the implementation of the judgment. The SlP filed by it in Supreme Court has been withdrawn and dismissed,” Parmanand said.
