Gulab Singh vs U O I And Anr (2026:Rj-Jp:10810) on 16 March, 2026

Rajasthan High Court – Jaipur

Gulab Singh vs U O I And Anr (2026:Rj-Jp:10810) on 16 March, 2026

[2026:RJ-JP:10810]

        HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
                    BENCH AT JAIPUR

                 S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 10303/2013

Gulab Singh Son of Shri Amar Singh, aged about 60 years,
Resident of 120-Rajendra Path, 21 South Colony, Niwaroo Road,
Jhotwara, Jaipur (Raj.). At present working as Inspector at C.S.C
Reserve Company, North Western Railway, Jaipur.
                                                                     ----Petitioner
                                     Versus
1. Union of India, through Director General, Railway Protection
Force, Rail Bhawan, New Delhi.
2. Chief Security Commissioner, Railway Protection Force North
Western Railway Head Quarter, Jagatpura, Jaipur.
                                                                  ----Respondents

For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Munesh Bhardwaj, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Mohit Balwada, Adv.

HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE PRAVEER BHATNAGAR

Judgment

1. Date of conclusion of arguments 18/02/2026

2. Date on which the judgment was reserved 18/02/2026

3. Whether the full judgment or only the operative
part is pronounced Full Judgment

4. Date of pronouncement 16/03/2026

1. The present writ petition has been filed under Article 226 of

the Constitution of India, challenging the respondents’ decision

not to promote the petitioner to the post of Assistant Security

Commissioner/Assistant Commandant in Group ‘A’ Junior Scale,

and also to seek quashing of the Annual Confidential Reports

(‘ACRs’) for the year 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

2. Briefly stated, the petitioner was appointed as a Sub-

Inspector in the Railway Protection Force on 01.04.1978 and was

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subsequently promoted to the post of Inspector in the year 1994.

As per the seniority list dated 30.03.2006, the petitioner was

placed at Serial No. 538, whereas Shri Anil Bhalerao, who was

junior to the petitioner and placed at Serial No. 539, came to be

promoted.

3. The petitioner’s grievance stems from the promotion order

dated 10.08.2011 which promoted 31 Inspectors to the position of

Assistant Security Commissioner/Assistant Commandant (Group

‘A’ Junior Scale), despite the petitioner being senior and otherwise

eligible for promotion.

4. The ACRs for the years 2005 to 2008 were communicated to

the petitioner only in January, 2011 and the same were relied

upon by the respondents while denying promotion to the

petitioner. The petitioner contends that in the relevant column of

the said ACRs he was recorded as ‘fit for promotion’. It is further

urged that certain adverse remarks, particularly for the year 2007,

were unwarranted inasmuch as the petitioner was not assigned

duties relating to crime control during the said period.

5. The petitioner submitted a representation challenging the

impugned ACRs as well as the denial of promotion. It is further

contended that the action of the respondents in promoting officers

junior to the petitioner, while overlooking his candidature, is

arbitrary and violative of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of

India. It is to be noted that during the pendency of the present

writ petition, the petitioner attained the age of superannuation

and retired from service on 30.06.2013.

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6. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the

petitioner was fully eligible for promotion at the relevant time and

that his seniority position has not been disputed. It is further

contended that despite petitioner being senior, his juniors were

promoted vide order dated 10.08.2011 without considering his

candidature, which is arbitrary and violative of the equality clause

enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution.

7. It is also submitted that the ACRs were communicated to the

petitioner belatedly in the year 2011 and the same were relied

upon as a basis to deny him promotion, which is impermissible in

law and the remarks recorded in the said ACRs were unjustified

and that the petitioner was otherwise found suitable for

promotion.

8. Furthermore, it is argued that denial of promotion on the

basis of such ACRs, coupled with the promotion of officers junior

to the petitioner, infringes the constitutional guarantee of equality

as provided under Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution. It is,

therefore, prayed that the impugned action be set aside and

petitioner be promoted to the Post of Assistant Security

Commissioner/Assistant Commandant in Group ‘A’ Junior Scale

with all consequential benefits.

9. Per contra, learned counsel for the respondents submitted

that the promotion procedure is governed by the RPF Officers

Recruitment Rules, 1994 read with the Department of Personnel

and Training’s letter No. 22011/5/91/Estt.(D) dated 27.03.1997

and that the petitioner’s ACRs for the years 2006 to 2008 were

graded as ‘Average’, which was below the prescribed benchmark

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for promotion to Group ‘A’ Junior Scale. It is further submitted that

promotions were made on the basis of eligibility, seniority and

fulfillment of the benchmark criteria, which the petitioner failed to

satisfy.

10. It is also submitted that the ACRs for the relevant years were

communicated to the petitioner in accordance with the Railway

Board’s instructions dated 04.01.2011 and the petitioner

acknowledged receipt of the same on 13.01.2011. The

representation submitted by the petitioner was duly considered

and disposed of by the competent authority.

11. Additionally, it is pointed out that the petitioner retired from

service on 30.06.2013 upon attaining the age of superannuation

and has already been granted financial upgradations under the

applicable schemes. Therefore, no illegality or arbitrariness can be

attributed to the action of the respondents and the present writ

petition deserves to be dismissed.

12. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the

material available on record.

13. Upon consideration of the rival submissions, this Court finds

no ground to interfere with the action of the respondents for the

following reasons:

14. Firstly, the ACRs for the years 2006 to 2008, which were

communicated to the petitioner, record his grading as ‘Average’,

and the representation submitted by the petitioner challenging the

said ACRs have already been considered and rejected by the

competent authority.

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15. Secondly, it is well settled that this Court, while exercising

jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, does not

sit as an appellate authority over administrative decisions with

regard to petitioners representation challenging his ACR’s.

16. Thirdly, the law is equally settled that in the absence of any

specific allegation of mala fides against the officer who recorded

the entries in the ACRs, the Court would ordinarily refrain from

interfering with such administrative assessments. In the present

case, the petitioner has failed to attribute any specific mala fides

to the concerned officials.

17. Moreso, the Hon’ble Apex Court in the matter of Amrik

Singh v. Union of India, (2001) 10 SCC 424, delineated upon

the scope of interference in the administrative matters, has held

as under:-

“14. The scope of judicial review in such matters
of assessment of merit for purpose of promotion
has been dealt with by this Court recently in the case of
Union of India v. Lt. Gen. Rajendra Singh Kadyan
[(2000) 6 SCC 698: 2000 SCC (L&S) 797 : (2000) 5
Scale 327]

15. In para 29 of the said judgment, this Court stated
as follows: (SCC pp. 714-15)

“29. The contention put forth before us is that
there are factual inaccuracies in the statement
recorded by the Cabinet Secretary in his note
and, therefore, must be deemed to be vitiated
so as to reach a conclusion that the decision of
the Government in this regard is not based on
proper material. The learned Attorney-General,
therefore, took great pains to bring the entire
records relating to the relevant period which
were considered by the Cabinet Secretary and
sought to point out that there were notings
available on those files which justify these
remarks. Prima facie, we cannot say, having
gone through those records, that these notings
are baseless. Critical analysis or appraisal

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of the file by the Court may neither be
conducive to the interests of the officers
concerned or for the morale of the entire
force. Maybe one may emphasize one
aspect rather than the other but in the
appraisal of the total profile, the entire
service profile has been taken care of by
the authorities concerned and we cannot
substitute our view to that of the
authorities. It is a well-known principle of
administrative law that when relevant
considerations have been taken note of and
irrelevant aspects have been eschewed from
consideration and that no relevant aspect has
been ignored and the administrative decisions
have nexus with the facts on record, the same
cannot be attacked on merits. Judicial review
is permissible only to the extent of finding
whether the process in reaching decision
has been observed correctly and not the
decision as such. In that view of the
matter, we think there is no justification
for the High Court to have interfered with
the order made by the Government.”

21. In the result, we are not inclined to grant any relief
to the appellant in spite of the fact that his
performance in the subsequent years has been shown
to be very good and his ratings were very high.
Ultimately the single adverse remark of 1985-86 by the
Reviewing Officer had stood in his way, not only at the
time of original consideration but also when the matter
was considered afresh pursuant to the directions of the
High Court. The result may be unfortunate. But the
scope of the jurisdiction of the High Court being
very limited, we cannot go into the correctness of
the adverse remarks, nor into the assessment
made by the Selection Board on the two
occasions.”

(Emphasis Supplied)

18. Therefore, in the absence of any cogent material on record

to contradict the stand of the respondents that the petitioner did

not meet the eligibility requirements for promotion i.e., grading of

‘Good’ in terms of RPF Officers Recruitment Rules, 1994 read with

DOPTs letter No. 22011/5/91/Estt.(D) dated 27.03.1997, this

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Court finds no justifiable reason to interfere with the

administrative decision taken by the respondents.

19. In view of the foregoing discussion, the present writ petition

being devoid of any merit is hereby dismissed.

20. All pending application(s), if any, also stand disposed of.

(PRAVEER BHATNAGAR),J

Ashwani Kr Srivastava /-2 Supplementary

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