JUDGMENT

Madan B. Lokur, J.

1. These appeals raise a narrow question for consideration, namely, 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 laydown the correct law, P. Sivanandi v. Rajiv Kumar, MANU/TN/9878/2006.

2. As mentioned above, the issue involved in this case is rather narrow and it is not necessary to detail all the facts of the case. Suffice it to say that the appellant Sivanandi was directly recruited on or about 6th May, 1985 as a Deputy Superintendent of Police with the Tamil Nadu Police.

3. A Select Committee constituted under the Indian Police Service (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations, 1955 considered Sivanandi, amongst others, for promotion in 1994-95 to the Indian Police Service. The Annual Confidenti