LAW FOR ALL

whether the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) of an officer forms a part of his ‘service record’ and whether it could be ignored for the purposes of his promotion merely on the ground that it was written after some delay. In our opinion, the ACR of an officer forms a part of his service record and he cannot be prejudiced merely because his superior officers delayed writing it. The judgment and order to the contrary passed by the Madras High Court on 27th October, 2006 in W.P. Nos. 15791-15795 of 2006 does not lay down the correct law.[1]= whether on a consideration of the entire service record Sivanandi was entitled to be promoted to the IPS with the year of allotment as 1991. There is nothing to suggest that the Review Select Committee with the UPSC did not consider the case of Sivanandi for promotion on merit or that the view of the Review Select Committee was perverse in any manner. That being so we do not think it proper to interfere with the decision arrived at by the Review Select Committee with the UPSC on the basis of the service record of Sivanandi more so when it was the submission of the UPSC that what tilted the scales in his favour was his ACR for the period 1992-93 which was earlier missing and which was not taken into consideration on an earlier occasion. 22. Under these circumstances we uphold the decision taken by the Review Select Committee and allow these appeals by setting aside the order of the High Court. Sivanandi will be entitled to all consequential benefits.