ORDER

Hon’ble Dr. Anand S. Khati, Member (A) Heard the learned counsel for the respective parties and perused the pleadings on record.

2. On 20.09.2014, the Respondent No.2 - Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) issued a notification for Combined Section Officers/Stenographers‟ (Grade-B/Grade-I) Limited Departmental Competitive Examination, 2014. The said examination comprises of two parts, i.e., Part-I - Written Examination and Part-II – Evaluation of Service Records. The applicant (viz. Kapil Nagi) appeared in the said examination and was declared successful. The applicant was already working as Personal Assistant and applied as a departmental candidate through proper channel, i.e., Respondent No.1 – Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which was his parent department. The Respondent No.1 had properly forwarded his application to Respondent No.2 - UPSC. The Respondent No.2 – UPSC conducted the Written Examination on 27th and 28th December, 2014. After clearing the Written Examination, evaluation of service records was to be done. UPSC, the examination conducting agency, required the APARs (Annual Performance Appraisal Reports) from the Department concerned, i.e., Respondent No.1. These APARs were to be supplied by the Respondent No.1 to the Respondent No.2. The applicant has submitted his APARs (self appraisal) for the periods 02.05.2011 to 31.03.2012 and 01.04.2012 to 28.12.2012 to his Reporting/ Reviewing Officers within the timeframe. At a later stage, it is known that the Respondent No.1 has not submitted the APARs of the applicant in time to the Respondent No.2.

3. The APARs for the periods 02.05.2011 to 31.03.2012 and 01.04.2012 to 28.12.2012 were shown to be completed by the concerned officers on 14.07.2015 and sent to the applicant in November, 2015 only along with a covering letter dated 27.11.2015. The applicant has been graded as „Outstanding‟ in both the APARs.

It is worth mentioning that the applicant had submitted his self appraisals on 10.05.2012 and 12.04.2013 for the said APARs. Vide letter dated 30.12.2015, the UPSC informed the applicant that his candidature has been cancelled by the Commission due to absence of sufficient APARs as on 01.07.2014. According to the applicant, he was wrongly punished, while it was entirely the responsibility of the Respondent No.1, who was the custodian of the APARs. The applicant submitted a representation dated 08.01.2016 to the Respondent No.1 to take up the matter with the Respondent No.2. However, the Respondent No.1 rejected his representation vide non- speaking, non-reasoned order dated 15.02.2016. The present O.A. is emanated from the same.

4. The UPSC (Respondent No.2) has observed that in many cases, all the relevant APARs for the period 2010-11 to 2014-15 were not received from the Respondent No.1 and the matter was taken up with the MEA (Respondent No.1) vide letter dated 15.07.2015. In response thereto, the Ministry of External Affairs forwarded the relevant APARs and „No Reporting Certificates‟ to the extent available with them and APARs for the period 2010-11 to 2013-14 were furnished in respect of the applicant and mentioned that APARs for the period 2011-12, 2012-13 (01.04.2012 to 28.12.2012) and 2014-15 are not available. The Assessment Board did not assess the APARs in respect of the applicant in view of the fact that sufficient APARs were not made available in the case. The UPSC clarified that in order to complete the entire selection process in a time bound manner, the respondents called for the APARs of written examination qualified candidates within the stipulated time period so that the same may be placed before the Assessment Board for assessment.

5. The candidates who appear in the Combined SOs /Stenos (Grade-B/Grade-I) LDCE, 2014 get sufficient period for completion of their service records and only in those cases where requisite number of minimum of 03 (three) ACRs/APARs are not available, like in the instant case of the applicant, the