The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is looking into the criteria adopted for promotions in senior ranks of the Indian Navy in the wake of a series of recent adverse judgements and complaints.
Sources said the MoD’s move comes in the wake of at least two recent judgments of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) severely indicting Naval promotion methodology.
In one of the cases, the AFT, while imposing a fine of ₹5 lakh on a retired Vice Admiral for nepotism, also upheld the contention that his actions scuttled the careers of almost the entire Russia-trained engineers of India’s secretive nuclear submarine wing.
The apex court last month dismissed the Navy’s Special Leave Petition in the case involving Commander S.S. Luthra, one of the nuclear submarine engineers trained in Russia, whose career was cut short because of alleged nepotism by the retired Admiral. The court also upheld the ₹5 lakh fine imposed on the retired Vice Admiral.
More legal challenges
Even as the MOD reviews the criteria adopted for promotions, one more senior Navy officer has approached the Supreme Court, claiming that illegal actions resulted in his otherwise sterling career being scuttled.
Commodore P.K. Banerjee’s petition, filed through Advocate Prashant Bhushan, is coming up in the court on December 8. Mr. Banerjee, who led India’s first anti-piracy operation as the captain of INS Tabar in 2008, has told the SC that “very severe adverse remarks” were inserted into his ACR (annual confidential report) without communicating them to him, that too at the end of the same anti-piracy operation that was lauded within the Navy and outside.
In the AFT judgement in Mr. Banerjee’s case, the principal bench of the Delhi AFT said “the Indian Navy should have a re-look at their appraisal/moderation system.” The AFT also expressed hope that the MoD will have a re-look at the Navy’s system.
Complaint to CJI
Meanwhile, a retired senior Naval officer has complained to the Chief Justice of India (CJI), accusing the Navy of fraud in denying him promotion and of obtaining a High Court order against him almost a decade ago.
Commodore V. Ravindranathan had lost his appeal for promotion to the next rank in the Delhi High Court in 2008.
Commodore Ravindranathan has written to Chief Justice Deepak Mishra about “grave legal impropriety which has resulted in gross miscarriage of Justice to me and which would have remained under wraps had I not obtained certified copies of the entire case record from the Hon’ble High Court [of] Delhi’s record section.”
On being alerted by another officer, the retired officer dug through the documents that revealed the mysterious guidelines that govern promotion to senior Naval ranks.
