The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to file its response as to whether it had approved the Army's "command exit promotion" policy, which has been quashed by the Armed Forces Tribunal, meant for officers of the rank of Colonel and above from January, 2009.
"Had the Defence Ministry filed an affidavit before the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) that it has approved the 'command exit promotion policy'?" a bench of justices T S Thakur and R Banumathi said.It asked the Defence Secy or a person authorised by him to file an affidavit within a week stating "whether the govt had accepted the recommendations of the AVSC with regard to the 'command exit promotion policy'".
The bench also said that the response of the government should contain details about the promotion policy being followed and if the AVSC report was not approved then whether the Ministry had taken up the issue with the Army or not. The bench is hearing the appeal of the Defence Ministry against AFT's decision to quash Army's "command exit promotion" policy on the ground that it is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.