Employee to be heard in case of adverse ACR: CAT

The government has to give an opportunity to its employee to present his case if there is an adverse remark in the Annual Confidential Report(ACR) which could hamper his promotion, the Central Administrative Tribunal(CAT)has said.
The tribunal passed the order on a petition of a senior scientist, J P Sharma, working with Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR),alleging that he was deprived of promotion on the basis of an adverse ACR without giving him an opportunity to challenge the report.
The government contended that overall grading in his ACR for last two years was 'average' but denied him the right to representation on the ground that it was 'not adverse'per se.
But, the tribunal did not agree with the government's view and said the employee has the right to be heard in all cases where his prospect of promotion gets adversely affected due to the 'average' grading as he would get promoted only after getting 'very good' grading.
"It is the effect which the entry is having which determines whether it is an adverse one or not. Any entry below the benchmark which deprives someone of eligibility for promotion must be informed about and be given a right to representation," the Bench comprising chairman V K Bali and N D Dayal said.