IMPORTANT POINT
Compliance with AFO 33/2017 requirements for seeking permission to apply for a civil post is mandatory for air force personnel.

JUDGMENT

V. Kameswar Rao, J.

1. The challenge in this petition is to an order dated December 06, 2023, passed by the Armed Forces Tribunal (`AFT', for short) in O.A. No.3068/2022, whereby, the AFT has dismissed the O.A. filed by the petitioner herein.

2. The petitioner has filed the present petition with the following prayers:

"(i) To set aside the judgment dated 06.12.2023 passed by Ld. Armed Forces Tribunal in OA No. 3068/2022.

(ii) To direct the respondents to issue NOC and discharge to the Applicant from the post of Corporal to allow him to join the Gazatted Post of Assistant Professor (Hindi) in Rajasthan Government with immediate effect.

(iii) And/ or pass any other order/direction which may be deemed fit and proper in the interest of justice to the petitioner."

3. The facts which can be noted from the record are that the petitioner herein got enrolled in Indian Air Force (`IAF', for short) on March 28, 2012, and is currently holding the post of Corporal. According to the petitioner, as on date, he has 11 years 7 months of unblemished service in IAF. It was the case of the petitioner before AFT that an advertisement was issued by Rajasthan Public Service Commission on November 02, 2020, inviting applications for recruitment to the post of Assistant Professor (Hindi). Being interested in applying for the said post, the petitioner filled the online application seeking permission of the respondents to apply to the said post in accordance with Air Force Order 33/2017 (`AFO 33/2017', for short) through AFRO website on November 25, 2020. As the skill grade of the petitioner was grade `C', the website failed to accept the online application of the petitioner. In fact, the petitioner received an annotation indicating that he is not permitted to apply for the civil post due to his current skill grade as `C'.

4. It was also the case of the petitioner that when AFRO website did not accept the application, he approached the respondents by way of filing an offline application on November 27, 2020, whereby, permission was sought by the petitioner to apply for the said post. The said application was not accepted by the Technical Control Room, HU, AF C/o-AF Station, Yelahanka, Bangalore and he was informed by the officials that there is no procedure of seeking offline permission and as such, the petitioner was left with no other option of seeking permission as required under AFO 33/2017.

5. It is stated that as the last date for filling the application, as per the advertisement, was coming to an end, the petitioner with a view to capitalize on the opportunity applied without seeking permission from the authorities concerned/respondents herein.

6. It is further stated that the Rajasthan Public Service Commission concluded the written examination on September 22, 2021 and September 23, 2021. The petitioner appeared in the examination on both the dates. The result of the examination was declared on April 13, 2022, wherein, the petitioner was declared qualified. Thereafter, the petitioner got a call letter for participating in the interview and in furtherance of that call letter, he appeared in the interview. The petitioner having participated in the interview, successfully cleared the interview, as per the result declared on October 01, 2022. Moreover, the petitioner had also received the offer for appointment. After the result was declared and he was selected in the selection process, he approached the respondents with a general application dated October 03, 2022 and made a request for grant of discharge along with NOC to join the gazetted post. The said application of the petitioner was rejected by the Air Officer on October 14, 2022, with the remark `not recommended'.

7. It was his case before AFT, that though the provisions of AFO 33/2017 provide that an airman could only participate in the selection process after seeking permission from the respondents and for which an online application needs to be submitted, however, in the case of the petitio