Armed Forces Tribunal orders Army to revise brigadier’s CRs, restore seniority

New Delhi: The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has directed the Indian Army to change two performance reports of a brigadier and restore his original seniority after finding that his performance was not assessed consistently. The tribunal said the Army could not use different standards for two reports prepared under the same rules.

The case concerns Brigadier Ravinder Singh, a 1990 batch officer of the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME). Brig Singh was not selected for promotion to major general by the Army’s No. 1 selection board and later challenged three confidential reports (CRs), saying the changes made to them had affected his promotion.

A CR is an official assessment of an Army officer’s performance and is one of the records considered when officers are evaluated for promotion. In Brig Singh’s case, the tribunal looked at how three such reports were assessed and how the selection board used them while considering his promotion.

Brig Singh argued that two of the reports were downgraded during the assessment process. He also said that in a third report, the initiating officer had rated him “outstanding”, but the entire assessment was later removed without consulting the officer who had given the rating.

The AFT is a specialized judicial body that deals with service-related cases involving members of the armed forces. In this case, its bench comprising justice Rajendra Menon and Lieutenant General Chandi Prasad Mohanty (retd) Mohanty examined whether Brig Singh’s reports had been dealt with fairly and according to the Army’s rules.

According to the Tribune, Brig Singh’s counsel argued that the Army had treated the reports differently. One report was retained despite being lowered by senior officers, while another with a very high assessment was removed, which the counsel said was inconsistent with the Army’s own policy.

The tribunal upheld the assessment in one of the disputed reports but found problems with the other two. It was particularly concerned that the selection board had relied heavily on the lower assessments given by the reviewing officer and senior reviewing officer in one report.

The bench said the selection board should have looked at Brig Singh’s complete service record instead of focusing mainly on one report. This included his overall CR record and his overall average profile, which shows the broader pattern of an officer’s assessments over the years.

The tribunal also looked at the report in which Brig Singh had received the highest assessment. It noted that this report was in line with his earlier performance record and overall average profile, but had been removed simply because it was considered a “near perfect nine” assessment.

The bench said treating the two reports differently was unfair and had serious consequences for Brig Singh’s career. It observed that a promotion decision should not be based on isolated marks while ignoring the officer’s overall performance record.

The AFT has now directed the Army to modify the two disputed CRs and restore Brig Singh’s original seniority. The ruling means the Army will have to reconsider the impact of those reports on his service record in line with the tribunal’s directions.