Case: Union of India Vs. Lt. General Rajendra Singh Kadyan

eligible candidates in that cadre should have been considered and consideration of only two candidates, namely, the appellant in one of the cases and respondent No. 1, alone could not meet the necessary criteria. This contention does not also hold water because no one else has made a complaint and the case of respondent No. 1 has been duly considered. Thus the argument advanced by Shri P.P. Rao on this aspect does not stand to reason. 28. Now we come to the last aspect of the matter, namely, the manner in which the Cabinet Secretary examined the service profiles of the two officers in question. For purposes of convenience, we may set out the relevant portion of the note : "Lt. Gen. R.S. Kadyan :- He was commissioned in the Rajputana rifles regiment of the Infantry in June, 1962 and has held various Command, Staff and Instructional appointments. He picked up the rank of Lt. Gen. on 24th September, 1997 and started functioning as regular Corps Commander. The General Officer has a balanced exposure in Command, Staff and Instructional appointments. However, his staff experience in senior ranks from Brig. onwards is only limited to that of Military Attache. He has no experience of working in Northern Command and Army Headquarters. Since 1980 he has worked for about 4 years in field areas. It also appears from his records that he did not participate in 1962, 1965 operations. In his report of 1971, when he participated in the operations, there are some advisory remarks both by the IO and RO as below :-"...... should be bold and aggressive in operation..... Should lead his men personally to difficult objectives." (Remarks by IO)."..... his performance as a Rifle Coy Commander in the recent operations has been satisfactory though not upto the expected level." (Remarks by RO). The overall profile of the officer, especially in senior ranks has been clearly above average. All the reporting officers gave him above average ratings with sprinkling of outstanding ratings. "As regards CI operations, the officer has handled the same as IG North, Assam Rifles, but he has not had experience of commanding a regular Army Division. His experience as Corps Commanders is also limited. He is a graduate of Staff Collage and has also done higher command courses. He is recipient of Chiefs Commendation, VSM and AVSM. He is medical category SHAPE-1." "Lt. Gen HRS Kalkat :- He was commissioned in Maratha Light Infantry in June, 1962. He became Lt. Gen in Feb. 1996 and since then he is commanding 33 Corps in the Eastern Sector. The general officer has rich experience in Command and Staff appointments. He has worked both in Eastern and Northern Commands including high altitude areas. Since 1982 he has worked for about 4 years in remote field areas in the Eastern and Northern Commands including high altitude areas. Since 1982 he has worked for about 4 years in remote field areas in the Eastern Secor or, especially the border areas with China. He has also held important staff assignments in Military Operations, Infantry and Staff Duties, Directorates in the Army Headquarters. His instructional experience is however limited to junior ranks only and he has practically no experience of CI operations.The officer did not participate in 1962 and 1965 operations. His report of 1971, the year in which operations took place is quite laudatory. The overall profile of the officer, especially in senior ranks has been clearly above average. All reporting officers have given him above average ratings with sprinklings of outstanding ratings. He is a graduate of Staff College and has also done Senior Commands and NDS Courses. He is also a recipient of AVSM. He is medical category SHAPE-1." 29. The contention put forth before us is that there are factual inaccuracies in the statement recorded by the Cabinet Secretary in his note and, therefore, must be deemed to be vitiated so as to reach a conclusion that the decision of the Government in this regard is not based on proper material. The learned Attorney General, therefore, took great pains to bring the entire records relating to the relevant period which was considered by the Cabinet Secretary and sought to point out that there were notings available on those files which justify these remarks. Prima facie, we cannot say, having gone through those records, that these notings are baseless. Critical analysis or appraisal of the file by the Court may neither be conducive to the interests of the officers concerned or for the morale of the entire force. May be one may emphasize one aspect rather than the other but in the appraisal of the total profile, the entire service profile has been taken care of by the authorities concerned and we cannot substitute our view to that of the authorities. It is a well-known principle of administrative law that when relevant considerations have been taken note of and irrelevant aspects have been eschewed from consideration and that no relevant aspect has been ignored and the administrative decision has nexus to the facts on record, the same cannot be attacked on merits. Judicial review is permissible only to the extent of finding whether process in reaching decision has been observed correctly and not the decision as such. In that view of the matter, we think there is no justification for the High Court to have interfered with the order made by the Goverment. 30. Before parting with the case we need to observe that considering the nature of the sensitivity of the posts involved and that each of the officer feeling that he did not get the best of the deal at the hands of the Government or that the members of the force being aware who is the best is not heading them will certainly weaken the esteem and morale of the force. Therefore, the standards to be adopted and applied should be of the highest order so as to avoid such an impression in the force. 31. In t

Court's decision (1 = petition accepted / positive for appellant, 0 = rejected / negative): 1

Reasoning from the judgment:
1[ds]Before parting with the case we need to observe that considering the nature of the sensitivity of the posts involved and that each of the officer feeling that he did not get the best of the deal at the hands of the Government or that the members of the force being aware who is the best is not heading them will certainly weaken the esteem and morale of the force. Therefore, the standards to be adopted and applied should be of the highest order so as to avoid such an impression in thethe result, we allow the appeals filed by the Union of India and Lt. Gen. H.R.S. Kalkat and set aside the orders made by the High Court and dismiss the writ petition filed by respondent No. 1.