HC rap for Govt over fudged IAF appraisal report

Justice Vijender Jain and Justice R.C. Jain said that prime facie the respondent i.e; the Chief of Air Staff’s order denying Chhatwal an extension was based on ‘‘irrationality and arbitrariness’’.

The court has meanwhile asked the Centre to file a reply to the petition. It said: ‘‘How and in what circumstances and at whose instance the AR has been fudged and pasted, has to be seen after getting the affidavits from the respondents.’’

The court has stayed the Chief of Air Staff order till the next date, April 26. The Chief of Air Staff had marked Chhatwal an average 5.5 for the period November 1, 2001 to September 30, 2002. The court said it appears that this was done ‘‘on imaginary and untenable’’ grounds.

The court also said that Chhatwal, who was then the Additional Director General, NCC, was not working directly under the Air Force so the Chief of Air Staff could not have judged his performance objectively. The Initiating Officer had recommended his extension, calling him a ‘‘competent’’ and ‘‘efficient’’ officer.

Thereafter it was the Reviewing Officer (RO) who was the Defence Secretary and the Senior Reviewing Officer (SRO) who had graded him. The court had found that the RO’s initial grades of 8 and 7 had been changed/ tampered with making them a low 6 and 7. They had not even been initialled after being changed. The court said the grades of the RO and SRO are ‘‘suspect’’ and their authenticity and credibility is suspect.

The petitioner had alleged that he had been denied extension though he was consistently getting high grades over the past five years. It was only in the last appraisal that he had been denied poorly graded by the SRO i.e; the Air Chief.

His promotion to the next rank of Air Marshal was dependent on his extension of service by a year. On March 11, the Chief of Air Staff had ordered the extension of 11 Air Vice-Marshals, three of whom were junior to Chhatwal.

The judges told the Additional Solicitor General: ‘‘It is a shocking state of affairs. It’s better for you that you advise your clients properly otherwise (because of) the mischief they have made, many heads will roll.’’