U P S C Vs. K RAJAIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The 1st respondent herein belonging to A.P. Police Service of the rank of Superintendent of Police, filed an application before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad Bench, in the year 2002 questioning the two notifications dated 21-1-2002 and 15-2-2002 issued by the Central Government selecting and appointing certain police officers of Andhra Pradesh State cadre to the Indian Police Service against the vacancies of 1998 and 1999. It has been the case of the 1st respondent that despite his outstanding service he has not been selected whereas officers having inferior merit were selected. The main contention before the Tribunal was that there was no proper assessment of merit by the Selection Committee and the award and commendations which he got and the outstanding grading given in the ACRs for as many as four years were not duly taken into account by the selecting body. He claimed to possess superior merit over the three respondents who were senior to him and who were selected and appointed by the Government. The Tribunal did not accept the contention of the respondent. It dismissed the application while observing thus :

(3.) Aggrieved by the said order, the 1st respondent filed a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. Apart from the prayer to quash the order of the Tribunal and the two notifications issued by the Central Government in 2002, the first respondent sought for the direction to set aside the appointments of respondents 5 to 7 and to convene a fresh Selection Committee for re-assessment of comparative merit on the basis of the service records and not confining the consideration to ACRs only.