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ABHAY S. OKA, J.

FACTUAL MATRIX

1. The appellant has taken an exception to the Judgment and Order dated 02nd November, 2017 of the Armed Forces Tribunal, Principal Bench at New Delhi (for short ‘the Tribunal’).

2. On 14th March, 1978, the appellant was commissioned into the Territorial Army. On 14th March, 1991, he was promoted to Time Scale Major. With effect from 21 st March, 1996, he was promoted to Selection Grade Lieutenant Colonel. He was considered by the Selection Board for promotion on five occasions between 2000 to 2003, but was not empanelled.

 3. The appellant filed several statutory and non-statutory complaints. The first non-statutory complaint was against the Annual Confidential Report (for short ‘ACR’) of 1998, where redress was granted by GOC-in-C, Northern Command. Non-statutory complaint against non- empanelment for promotion to the post of Colonel in July, 2000 was treated as null and void. Statutory complaint against non-empanelment for promotion to the rank of Colonel in January, 2000 was rejected. A non-statutory complaint against ACR of October, 2000 was pending when the impugned Judgment was delivered. A non-statutory complaint filed by the appellant against non-empanelment for promotion to the rank of Colonel in December 2002 was rejected.

(e) To lay down promotion criteria for selection grade Colonel /Brigadier including threshold limit, mainly as for  Time Scale Promotions to Colonel/ Brigadier in Regular Army (being suitable for non unit command functions of Regular Army and for same reasons in non command TA, with suitable weightage for TA decoration; but no weightage for non compulsory course.

5. The transferred writ petition was contested before the Tribunal. By impugned Judgment dated 02nd November, 2017, the Tribunal found no error with the act of not placing the appellant in an acceptable grade for promotion to the rank of Colonel.

 SUBMISSIONS

6. We have heard the appellant appearing in person. The appellant has invited our attention to various documents on record. He submitted that he has been victimized and denied promotion to the post of Colonel. He pointed out several facts leading to the filing of the present petition. The appellant, appearing in person, submitted that all along, his ACRs have been above average or near excellent. He relied on the Territorial Army Regulations, 1948 (hereafter referred to as the ‘TA Regulations’), which dealt with the promotion of Territorial Army officers. He pointed out that as per Clause