By this application, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for issuance of a writ of certiorari for setting aside and quashing the adverse entries in his Annual Confidential Report (for short, ‘ACR’), for the years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, and also for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the respondent authorities to conduct a Review Departmental Promotion Committee for promoting him to the post of Second-in-Command with effect from 01.06.2010.

2. The case of the petitioner, in short, as projected in the writ petition is as follows:-

(i) At the time of filing the instant writ petition, the petitioner was working as Second-in-Command, 128th Battalion, Central Reserve Police Force (for short, ‘CRPF’), at Guwahati. The petitioner was appointed as a Sub-Inspector, in the CRPF, on 03.11.1983. He was promoted to the post of Inspector, Assistant Commandant and Deputy Commandant in the year 1992, 1998 and 2005, respectively. On 04.08.2011, the petitioner was promoted to the post of Second-in-Command, which post the petitioner was holding at the time of filing the writ petition. He was due for promotion to the post of Second-in-Command in the year 2010 as the eligibility criteria for such promotion was completion of 5 years of regular service in the grade of Deputy Commandant and that the promotion is governed by the principle of “seniority cum merit”. Last five years’ ACRs are considered for promotion and the benchmark for such promotion is “very good” entry in the ACR for the last three years and “good” entry for two years.

(ii) The name of the petitioner figured at Sl. No. 45, in the panel prepared for promotion to the post of Second-in-Command in the vacancy year 2010-2011, drawn up in the year 2010, and circulated by a consequential Circular dated 01.01.2010. Departmental Promotion Committee (for short, ‘DPC’) was constituted for promoting the officers to the post of Second-in-Command and, subsequently, a select list was prepared as per recommendation of the DPC. Based on such recommendation, promotion order was issued, on 01.06.2010, promoting as many as 43 officers to the post of Second-in-Command, including many juniors to the petitioner. However, as the name of the petitioner did not figure in the select list, he was not promoted.

(iii) Aggrieved by the non-inclusion of his name in the select list, the petitioner submitted a representation to the respondent No. 2, on 03.06.2010. As there was no response on the said representation, the petitioner submitted one more representation on 04.07.2010. Thereafter, vide letter dated 03.11.2010, the petitioner was provided with photocopies of the ACRs for the period (i) 01.04.2005 - 31.03.2006, (ii) 01.04.2006 – 31.03.2007 and (iii) 01.04.2007- 31.03.2008 and he was intimated that his ACRs had been found to be below the benchmark for promotion to the rank of Second-in-Command. By the said communication, the petitioner was also informed that he may submit representation within a period of 15 days from the date of receipt of the said communication. The petitioner submitted a representation, on 21.12.2010, to the respondent No. 2 praying for expunction of the adverse endorsements in his ACRs and stating that the Inspector General of Police (for short, ‘IGP’), Bihar Sector, who was the Accepting Officer/Superior Reviewing Officer of the ACRs of the petitioner, had downgraded the “very good” grading, given by the Reporting Officer as well as by the Reviewing Officer, without any reasons and that such downgrading in the ACRs was not communicated to the petitioner.

(iv) By a letter, dated 31.01.2011, the representation of the petitioner was rejected on the ground of the same being purportedly found devoid of merit. Aggrieved by the said order dated 31.01.2011, the petitioner preferred an appeal before the respondent No. 2 praying for expunction of the adverse entries in the ACRs for the year 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 and the said appeal a