The main legal point established in the judgment is that the competent authority must consider relevant facts and legal provisions, and apply its judicial mind in reaching decisions related to adverse remarks in APARs.

JUDGMENT :

Kalyan Rai Surana, J.

Heard Mr. G. Goswami, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Mr. K.K. Parashar, learned CGC for the respondent.

2. By this writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has assailed the adverse entry in the Annual Performance Assessment Report (APAR) of the petitioner for the period from 01.04.2013 to 31.03.2014 which had the effect of downgrading his APAR from "outstanding" to "very good".

3. In the writ petition it is projected that the petitioner is a direct recruit BSF officer of the year 1995 batch. After successful completion of his training he was posted as Assistant Commandant, BSF. At the relevant point of time, after getting promotion, he was holding the post of Second-in-Command (2IC for short) of 61 Bn BSF, the post he was holding as on the date of filing of the writ petition. In the writ petition it is projected that two incidents had taken place near the area of operation of the 61 Battalion BSF in course of antinaxal operation in Odisha. The first incident occurred on 16.11.2013, when an information was received that an informal meeting of the naxals was convened with the civilians in village Badapada which is stated to be 16 kms away from the camp. At the relevant point of time, it is projected that the Battalion Commander was on leave from 30.10.2013 to 08.12.2013 and accordingly, the petitioner had to head the operation. However, the State police disappeared from the point of start of operation and in view of the direction contained in Memo No.11- 18015-48/10-SA (NM) issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Naxal Management Division dated 03.08.2010 to the effect that for any naxal operation, the force may have a ratio of 1:3 between the State Police Force and CPMF. Accordingly, on being informed of the absence of the State Police, the petitioner had called off the combing operation.

4. It is also projected in the writ petition that without any meeting was held by the Naxals on 16.11.2013, nor there was any untoward incident on the said date. Thereafter, in a separate incident on 19.11.2013, two BSF informers, namely, Laxmi Khora and Satirao Hantal were shot dead in another village named Beliguma which is situated 2-3 kms from the Badapada camp.

5. Referring to the APAR annexed to the writ petition, it is projected that the Director General, BSF had visited the Badapada camp after the incident and based on wrong reporting by the Assistant Commandant, namely, Shri Priyank, the DG, BSF in his Tour notes dated 17.12.2013 made an adverse remark against the petitioner. Accordingly, based on the said Tour note, the reviewing authority had made a note in the APAR and also noted therein that there was no notable achievement was made by the petitioner during the period, as such the petitioner was graded as "Very Good" officer.

6. It is stated that the said remark amounted to downgrading of the petitioner because his reporting officer had given a remark of "Outstanding". It is projected that the accepting authority had numerically reduced the grade of the petitioner from 8 points to 7.85 points and by deducting 0.4 point from the overall score of the accepting authority had given score of 7.45 points out of 10 points as overall grade to the petitioner in his APAR.

7. The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that after the adverse remark in the APAR for the period ending on 31.03.2014 was communicated to the petitioner vide letter dated 05.09.2014, he had submitted a representation through proper channel wherein it was highlighted that the DG, BSF had been given wrong information by Shri Priyank, Assistant Commandant and he had also explained the reason for calling off the said operation and had narrated that the BSF informer was killed on 19.11.2013 which was an unrelated incident and moreover he had also informed the authority about the notable achievement during the 96 days period during which he had officiated the un