Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 17

Observing that prima facie there were discrepancies in the vigilance policies governing promotion and postings of officers, the Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal has restrained the Ministry of Defence from filing the post of Chief Engineer (CE), Delhi Zone, in the Military Engineer Service (MES).In his petition, Dev Raj, Joint Director General (Personnel and Training), Western Command, said when he was promoted as CE in June 2016, he was considered to be cleared from the vigilance, but when his case for posting as CE of a zone came up, he was not considered on the ground that he hadn’t got the vigilance clearance. Dev Raj, an Indian Defence Service of Engineers cadre officer, averred that an officer junior to him was posted as CE Delhi. The Delhi Zone CE oversees construction and maintenance of all Army official and residential buildings in the NCR.Dev Raj claimed he was implicated in a case related to procurement of pipes in 1995. Though vigilance gave him a clean chit at the initial stage, inquiry was ordered many years later and he was held blameworthy. The MoD said  vigilance criteria for promotion and posting to a sensitive appointment are different.However, observing that the MoD used same facts to promote and deny the officer the posting, the CAT said: “The act of creating this artificial distinction between these two situations does not appear logical or even legal.”