Published on: 14 July 2023 at 01:20 IST
Court: Supreme Court
Citation: Nand Kumar Verma V. State of Jharkhand (2012)
Honorable Supreme Court of India has held that the court has the right to examine whether some ground or material germane to the issue exists. It is further submitted that the opinion for compulsory retirement must be based on the subjective satisfaction of the authority concerned but such satisfaction must be based on a valid material. It is specifically held that the Government must bring evidence that can raise concerns over the integrity of a Person as a Public Servant. It is essential for the Government to demonstrate doubt on the fitness, competence, efficiency, or effectiveness of the Applicant by virtue of APAR or any other such document.
32. We also add that when an order of compulsory retirement is challenged in a court of law, the court has the right to examine whether some ground or material germane to the issue exists or not. Although, the court is not interested in the sufficiency of the material upon which the order of compulsory retirement rests.
34. It is also well settled that the formation of opinion for compulsory retirement is based on the subjective satisfaction of the authority concerned but such satisfaction must be based on a valid material. It is permissible for the courts to ascertain whether a valid material exists or otherwise, on which the subjective satisfaction of the administrative authority is based.
In the present matter, what we see is that the High Court, while holding that the track record and service record of the appellant was unsatisfactory, has selectively taken into consideration the service record for certain years only while making extracts of those contents of the ACRs. There appears to be some discrepancy. We say so for the reason that the appellant has produced the copies of the ACRs which were obtained by him from the High Court under the Right to Information Act, 2005 and a comparison of these two would positively indicate that the High Court has not faithfully extracted the contents of the ACRs
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra
