The Supreme Court has set aside the Indian Navy Selection Board's decision of April 12, 2024, which had denied Permanent Commission to Commander Seema Chaudhary, an officer of the Navy's Judge Advocate General (JAG) Branch, and directed the board to reconvene and reconsider her claim within six weeks, India Legal reported. Rediff News also reported on Wednesday that the court had asked the Navy to reconsider the woman officer's permanent commission case.
Source: India Legal
The Court held that the board placed undue emphasis on previous non-recommendations instead of adequately considering the officer's overall performance reflected in her Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs). It questioned how an officer who had secured the requisite grading for promotion in most of her confidential reports could nevertheless be considered unsuitable for Permanent Commission.
Blank recommendation columns cannot count against her
Examining her confidential reports, the Court noted that the reports carried recommendations in favour of Permanent Commission in 2013 and 2014, while the recommendation column remained blank in reports covering the period from 2008 to 2012. It held that the absence of an entry in that column could not be treated as a negative assessment, and directed that the confidential reports covering July 14, 2008 to October 31, 2014 be treated as containing positive recommendations for Permanent Commission.
The Bench also clarified the meaning of 'standalone' used in its earlier judgment of February 26, 2024 in Cdr Seema Chaudhary v. Union of India: her case must be examined on its own merits and cannot be assessed by comparing her performance or prospects with those of other officers.
What the government argued
Attorney General R. Venkataramani, appearing for the Union government, argued that the Navy had complied with the earlier directions, that a standalone assessment did not require the authorities to disregard her service record, and that Permanent Commission could not be treated as an automatic consequence of favourable assessments or extensions of service. The Court clarified that it was not directing the Navy to consider every ACR indiscriminately; its direction was limited to ensuring that confidential reports in which the recommendation column was left blank would not automatically operate against the officer.
A case running since 2020
Commander Chaudhary joined the Navy's JAG Branch as a Short Service Commissioned Officer in August 2007, was promoted to Lieutenant in 2009 and to Lieutenant Commander in 2012, and was granted extensions of service in 2016 and 2018. In August 2020 she was informed that she would be released from service in August 2021, and her claim for Permanent Commission has since been the subject of proceedings before the Supreme Court.
The Selection Board has now been directed to complete the reconsideration within six weeks, in compliance with the Court's February 2024 judgment and the clarifications issued in the present proceedings.