Armed Forces Tribunal quashes promotion

The Chandigarh bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) today set aside the promotion of Army's Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch officer Brigadier T Parshad to the rank of Major General.
The JAG branch is the legal and judicial branch of the Army, which deals with legal matters pertaining to the force.
A division bench comprising Justice VK Ahuja and Lt Gen HS Panag passed these orders while allowing a petition filed by two brigadiers.
In this case, Brigadier Dinkar Adeeb, deputy judge advocate general (DJAG) of Eastern Command and Brigadier PK Sharma of Northern Command had moved AFT alleging massive irregularities in promotions at the highest level in the JAG branch.

In his petition, Adeeb had alleged that with the clear motive of promoting Parshad, presently the DJAG Central Command posted at Lucknow, who was much junior to him, Army authorities had postponed the selection board proceedings, through which he was to be promoted to the rank of major general.
He averred that Parshad was illegally granted relief in his ACR/career profile on the eve of the selection board meeting by manipulating the system.

It was pointed out that according to the policy, no officer can be granted out-of-turn relief and relief on complaints can only be granted on a "first come first served" basis.

"The agenda and profiles of officers are frozen five days prior to the selection board meet and changes cannot be introduced just prior to the meet," Adeeb added.
Contesting the petition, Army had submitted that it was not practically possible to follow the five day freeze policy and also that there were file notings made on Oct. 12, which reflected that Brigadier Parshad was to be granted relief.
AFT held that file notings have no value till an order in the name of the President was passed and also that it was mandatory to follow the laid down cut-off date to eliminate arbitrariness.

Tribunal has also ordered for constitution of a fresh selection board without taking into account the improved profile of Brig. Parshad.