AFT promotes major general to Lt general 21 yrs after retirement
CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has directed the central government to promote a major general, now retired, to the rank of lieutenant general with all “consequential benefits”.
Major General MMR Narang of the Army Corps of Engineers said his name was cleared for the rank of lieutenant general in July 1996 but was made to retire in 1997 after citing ‘no vacancy’ in the higher rank.
Maj Gen Narang, who hails from Chandigarh and now lives in Noida, said he had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court in December 1996 claiming that there were some vacancies, including that of director general border roads (DGBR) and director general national cadet corps (DGNCC), in the corps at that time.
The HC transferred the case to AFT in 2016. He had said the DGNCC’S post remained vacant for five months and was then given to another officer of a junior batch, Lt Gen BS Malik, after being granted three-month service extension.
He said another officer, Maj Gen RJ Mordecai, who was declared fit to hold a “staff” appointment was not appointed as DGNCC but was appointed as DGBR to keep the DGNCC post vacant.
Maj Gen Narang had claimed that the existing system of ‘chain appointments’ was not adhered to due to some “political considerations”.
The AFT bench of justice MS Chauhan and Lt Gen Munish Sibal on August 16 held that the respondents have not only been unfair to the petitioner but also with the court by concealing facts and it amounted to fraud. The AFT also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the defence ministry for depriving him of his well deserved promotion on “non-existent, rather false grounds”.
The tribunal said the government had filed a false affidavit in the high court saying that there were only two vacancies for the Corps of Engineers while in reality there were three.
It was also observed that the government in another case had submitted in the Delhi high court that there were overall 56 vacancies of lieutenant general which was hidden from AFT in this case where only 52 vacancies were spelt out.